Health Care For America Now

Seeing as politicians have largely agreed that the public health insurance option will be part of reform in some way or another (see: Republicans looking for compromises on the issue, though it's not a real compromise), a lot of talk has turned to how to pay for health care reform.

It's a good question, but there's also a good answer. And that answer is largely what President Obama ran on during the campaign: tax the rich just a little bit more.

The Center for Tax Justice has released a report called "Progressive Revenue Options to Fund Health Care Reform," [pdf] which Health Care for America Now is supporting. The report proposes a wealth of options to pay for health reform that don't involve, say, taxing your employer health benefits.

Here's how we could raise $1 trillion+ with progressive policies, in convenient chart form:

If you want (lots) more detail, avail yourself of the full report.

This all fits in within the larger framework of shared responsibility. Everyone should shoulder the burden of health care costs. Individuals should pay based on their ability to pay (no free rides), business should either help provide their employees with health care or pay the government to provide it for them, and government should chip in to make health care accessible and affordable. To add to that, those of us in society with the most should pay a bit more to give health care to those of us with the least.

The taxes we're talking about here are not onerous: 1% more for the Medicare tax. 8% for capital gains. And eliminating loopholes and giveaways to big business. It's time these levels of society paid their fair share.