Tax Revenues hit all time high: $2.66 trillion

[piasabird]

My mom says there are a lot of things that Medicare will not pay for. The government keeps arbitrarily reducing what Medicare will pay.

There is no rime or reason to how Hospitals decide what medical care costs. For insurance and non-insured they keep arbitrarily changing their charges. I really think they are guilty of fraud if they have no set prices.

 

[Atreus21]

A lot of people are seeing higher state taxes as well. There is also a higher capital gains tax. Then there are new taxes for Obama Care.

So I wonder how much tax money will be sent back when people file their taxes as tax returns. Then there are also Obama care Penalties. Look for a big fight about this. It could be enough to send people into bankruptcy.

I head the penalties were unenforceable.

 

[Atreus21]

My mom says there are a lot of things that Medicare will not pay for. The government keeps arbitrarily reducing what Medicare will pay.

Compounded by the fact that doctors sometimes refuse to accept it since reimbursement is poor.

 

[fskimospy]

What does socialized mean?

Secondly, why then were healthcare costs so low before Medicare?

Socialized means the proportion of costs that are paid for by public expenditures. If you go look at health expenditures as a percentage of GDP you will see the countries with the most socialized systems tend to rank the best.

As for the causes of health care inflation, most developed nations have seen similar (albeing lower) increases over the same time period despite implementing national health care decades earlier. That points to facts external to the socialization of medicine.

 

[Moonbeam]

People are better off looking to their own interests than empowering a paternalistic government.

The government is not composed of our betters. I know how to take care of my children better than they do. I know my job better than they do. They are many orders of magnitude too stupid to handle my or anyone else's affairs.

It's in my interest that family members far away be taken care of by the government. I have a huge family and the government extends my reach.

 

[Moonbeam]

Conservatives think we should just shoot all the sick people by having them stand in lines to save money on bullets. Everybody knows this.

Everybody but conservatives.

 

[WackyDan]

I head the penalties were unenforceable.

Only if you adjust your withholding every year to the point where you owe taxes. Then you subtract the penalty and only pay them what you owe in taxes.

They have no recourse and no legal teeth to come after you for penalties owed, but they can keep any refund amount you may ever produce.

 

[Atreus21]

Socialized means the proportion of costs that are paid for by public expenditures. If you go look at health expenditures as a percentage of GDP you will see the countries with the most socialized systems tend to rank the best.

As for the causes of health care inflation, most developed nations have seen similar (albeing lower) increases over the same time period despite implementing national health care decades earlier. That points to facts external to the socialization of medicine.

When did widespread employer-sponsored health insurance become the norm?

 

[fskimospy]

When did widespread employer-sponsored health insurance become the norm?

Depends on how you define 'the norm'. There was a steady increase in it following WW2.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Everybody but conservatives.

Moonie, it's really tough to fool you....I should have known better.

 

[shortylickens]

We have a lot of things we never bothered paying for.

No kidding.
Social Security was raided many times and never paid back.
We got loads of individual welfare.
We got a crapload dumped into corporate welfare with both bailouts, and shitty over-inflated contracts. Alongside loads of government loans they have no intention of collecting.

 

[Matt1970]

I think what he means is that federal spending is not constrained by taxes.

.... that's precisely the problem.

.

Yes it is.

 

[fskimospy]

Yes it is.

Why?

 

[First]

Throughout modern history we've had record tax revenues during the vast majority of fiscal years; almost every year has been a "record" tax revenue year, that's what happens with consistent (low) inflation every-after-year. It's not noteworthy, in fact it's pretty awfully ignorant. Nominal values without breaking it down as a % of GDP are simply worthless.

 

[First]

Btw.

Suddenly Medicare costs don't seem nearly as scary, which I guess is what happens when you're on pace to spend $1T less.

 

[Atreus21]

Throughout modern history we've had record tax revenues during the vast majority of fiscal years; almost every year has been a "record" tax revenue year, that's what happens with consistent (low) inflation every-after-year. It's not noteworthy, in fact it's pretty awfully ignorant. Nominal values without breaking it down as a % of GDP are simply worthless.

It's not nominal. It's adjusted for inflation.

 

[ElFenix]

What does socialized mean?

Secondly, why then were healthcare costs so low before Medicare?

Because prior to medicare, surgical care was shit. Medicare has been around since 1966, the first human heart transplant didn't happen until a year later. They could mend broken bones prior to that, but that was about all.

 

[fskimospy]

It's not nominal. It's adjusted for inflation.

We also have population and GDP growth. Record tax revenues should be expected every year. A more useful one I think would be tax revenue as a % of GDP.

 

[Atreus21]

Because prior to medicare, surgical care was shit. Medicare has been around since 1966, the first human heart transplant didn't happen until a year later. They could mend broken bones prior to that, but that was about all.

Gonna need some serious sourcing for that.

 

[ElFenix]

Gonna need some serious sourcing for that.

this isn't difficult:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_transplantation

there were no CT scans, no MRIs, no scopes, no robots, chemotherapy was in its infancy as an effective product, heart stents didn't come into use until 1986, etc. prior to the 60s they could stitch you up and put some screws in by hand, but otherwise you were fucked. get cancer? they had to do exploratory surgery to see if it had spread. exploratory surgery!

 

[Matt1970]

Why?

Because I said so.

 

[First]

It's not nominal. It's adjusted for inflation.

I come up with no results for "inflation", "real" "adjusted", "CPI" or "index" when searching the actual CBO report quoted in your OP here, of course I could be wrong. Your CNSNews link does indeed say "inflation-adjusted", though given the source that's probably not true.

 

[First]

^ Oh, and as eskimospy said, population is certainly a massive factor. I heard on the radio just today we add just under a net of 3M people to the country every now through immigration/live births. It would no sense not to adjust for population either given the numbers mean nothing without that context.

 

[Moonbeam]

Moonie, it's really tough to fool you....I should have known better.

Yeah, well I'm just not as down on conservatives as you are I guess. I mean, come on. Allowing people to die of ignorant neglect can't have the same moral turpitude as actively shooting them, can it, even if the results are the same?

 

[alzan]

Absolutely it is. Why can't we keep it under control despite record tax revenue?

You should probably talk to our elected congressional representatives about that; they are the ones who hold the purse strings.