....propose a tax deduction of $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families regardless of whether they buy their own health insurance or receive medical coverage at work.
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This is sadly humorous. I am 63 years old. I have to buy my own insurance that is a mediocre HMO plan for my wife and myself. It costs me over $2000 per month. That is over $24,000 per year. I cannot get Medicare for another two years and my rates just went up 25% this year because I got another year older. Sorry Mr. President -- your tax deduction sucks -- so I may save $6000 per year, and I am still getting screwed by the HMO plan who know they have to milk everything out of me before I can get Medicare and that is what they are doing.
Really sucks.
What does open heart surgery cost nowadays?
"they have to milk everything out of me "
It just sounds like your insuring yourself from high risk.
If your really paying $24K per year, why not self-insure? If you and your wife remain healthy for 4 years, that's $100K, and that should take care of just about anything that happens to you. You also need to know if something happens like a debilitating stroke, that great HMO is going to state the patient is stable and transfer them to an uncovered convalescent hospital. Costs are so high, I encourage self-insurance, but that takes a lot of discipline to not cheat.