Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Tax rates, fraud, medical care for the uninsured

You can check here for our Federal (National) Income tax rates. These don't reflect the dizzying array of deductions we can take. Our top tax rate is 35%. (I remember reading somewhere that Great Britain's was 90%. I don't know if that is - or ever was - accurate.)

You can check here for our various State (sort of like Provinces in Canada) Income tax rates. I think most states base their taxes on our reported Federal income, so the deductions come into play again. As Tommy says, New York is high. So is my state, New Jersey. I can tell you, though, that I get far more services in New Jersey than my relatives in Alabama do, so there does appear to be some relationship between taxes and services.

In addition, we pay 7.5% of our salary toward Social Security (National retirement fund); our employers pay another 7.5%. If we're self-employed, we pay the whole 15%.It looks like the ceiling on that for 2005 is going to be $90,000. That means, we pay the tax on income up to $90,000, then no tax on income over that. Thus, the less money you make, the harder this tax hits you, both because it isn't progressive and because people who make lots and lots don't pay it at all on their income over $90,000.

I also believe there is a 1.45% Medicare (retirement health plan) tax on all income. It still is not progressive, but at least it applies to all income, however much it is.

In addition, State and county (like shires maybe?) governments love sales taxes. Some states, like New Jersey, don't tax food and clothing, which I like. Others seem to tax everything. Again, these are not progressive taxes and if the sales taxes apply to basic necessities they can be a serious burden for the poor - or even the not so poor.

Then there are property taxes, levied by cities and towns. If you own property, the town decides how much your home is worth, based on your use of it and the going sale prices in your neighborhood. You are then taxed based on that assessment. I own 10 acres of completely undeveloped land in Alabama and pay about $10 a year in property taxes. On a small house in West Orange, New Jersey, the taxes can easily run $5000 and up. On a nice house in Montclair, New Jersey, the next town over, the taxes probably start at $15,000 and go up steeply from there. I don't even want to think about what property taxes are like in New York City.

There are also special taxes for gasoline, sins (alcohol, tobacco), and who knows what else. The gasoline taxes go for road construction and maintenance, I think - that makes sense to me. The sin taxes are supposedly in place to discourage sins, but I think the reality is that governments have discovered that people who drink and smoke will pay any tax, however high, to continue doing so.

I agree that there is fraud in the use of social services, which really puzzles me. With everything computerized to death, it should be at least somewhat possible to write computer programs to pick up patterns indicative of fraud which could then be investigated. I don't know a lot about it, but my impression is that most frauds are not that sophisticated.

Most people get their health care through their jobs, which is insane, because if you get laid off you lose your care. There is an 18-month period during which you can continue to get health insurance from your previous employer, but only if you can pay for it yourself. That can be quite a trick if you don't have a job. Once that 18-month period runs out, you must purchase private insurance. I'm very lucky in that New Jersey requires companies that sell any health insurance in the state to sell to individuals. I cannot be refused insurance and cannot be dropped if I become ill. I must be covered for pre-existing conditions so long as I have had continuous insurance coverage in the past year. I cannot be charged more because of pre-existing conditions. It is my understanding that New Jersey is one of only 3 states in the country that has a "right to private insurance" law. This means that in some states, I would not even be able to find a company willing to sell me insurance or, if I did, my premiums might be even higher than they are.

As I understand it, emergency care for the uninsured is pretty good. Hospitals must treat whoever walks into their Emergency Rooms. The problem is that preventive care and maintenance care falls through the cracks. If you don't have private insurance and you can't prove you qualify for a National or State insurance plan and you can't afford to pay for the care yourself, you go without. There is some indication that this is financially stupid as well as uncompassionate, since people become sick or sicker when they shouldn't have, thereby requiring emergency care that wouldn't have been needed if they'd been treated early on. In addition, people begin using Emergency Rooms as primary care facilities, visiting them for ailments that would be more appropriately treated in a less expensive setting.

So, what's it like over there?

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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