Ask Congress to “un-tax” your healthcare expenses. Retweet
Good news! Donald Trump’s “Ryan-care” bill is dead. Bad news! Obamacare still lives.
What do we do next?
- Remind Congress we want Obamacare replaced
- Tell Congress what we want that replacement to look like
We have a new campaign designed to do both things. The hardwired letter to Congress reads…
No American should be taxed on the dollars they spend for healthcare.
You can copy or edit this sample text for your personal letter to Congress…
You politicians keep telling us that healthcare is so important that it requires your massive involvement. But there’s one thing that would make a big positive improvement, and you consistently fail to do it. So here’s how I want to be “represented”…
* Make all health expenditures tax deductible, with no threshold to itemize. In other words, make it so we can deduct our healthcare expenses in addition to our standard exemptions and/or other deductions.
* Include insurance premiums and preventive measures, such as supplements and fitness clubs in the list of deductible expenses. Everyone agrees on the preventative power of exercise, and the Life Extension Foundation has marshaled overwhelming evidence that many supplements outperform pharmaceuticals both in preventing and treating disease. Increased prevention will lower medical costs over time.
* Americans should also be allowed to save unlimited amounts in their Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). This will help us better prepare for our future needs and give us an incentive to economize on current healthcare spending.
These changes will do two things. First, Americans will obtain the means to cover their own healthcare costs and a more secure future through unlimited HSAs. Second, this new tax-deductibility will put individually-purchased insurance on the same tax footing as employer paid insurance. This tax reform is powerful because it will…
* Create incentives where people prefer individual policies, which will…
* Decouple health insurance coverage from employment, so that…
* People will no longer lose their coverage when they lose their jobs.
Increasing the number of individual policies will also curtail the pre-existing conditions problem (PEC) that happens when people get sick during periods of unemployment. The PEC problem was state-caused. Politicians paved the way with tax policies that made employer-provided plans tax deductible without doing the same for individually owned policies. The result was that coverage was tied to a specific job, and those without employer-provided insurance often had no coverage at all. This was a massive and obvious error that has caused many of our current healthcare problems. You must fix this mistake.
In short, no American should be taxed on the dollars they spend on healthcare. I want to see you introduce legislation to make all of the above happen.
— END OF SAMPLE LETTER–
Reminder: When you send your letter, you may have a Rep or Senator that is not current. Well, a new Downsize DC website is coming soon (details)! So we’re not diverting money or time into updating our current software. But action cannot wait. Your letter will still be delivered to the other incumbents, so please send it.
- Send your letter to Congress
- Forward this message to friends you think might agree.
- Share this action item on Facebook and other social networking sites
- Please consider making a contribution or starting a monthly pledge to further our work
Thanks for being an ACTIVE DC Downsizer,
Perry Willis & Jim Babka
Downsize DC