Thursday, April 22, 2010

Santé : Attention Québécois, le légendaire Tom Kent aurait la réponse

Tom Kent. le futé
   The commonly suggested remedy is user fees. At rates sufficient to be effective, they would destroy the purpose of medicare. There is an equitable alternative, suggested by some of us when thinking about health policy 50 years ago. Then tax recovery of social benefits was an unconventional idea, but people have since become accustomed to it, notably in the case of Old Age Security.
   It would now be practicable to report the total cost of the public-health services received by an individual or family during the year. But, unlike other T4 forms, only a small part of the money, up to a maximum of 10 per cent of other income, would count as taxable.
   For example, someone with $50,000 income otherwise, who got medicare benefits costing $2,000, would next year pay back (at the present 15 per cent rate) $300 of it. If serious illness resulted in costs of $5,000 or more, the payback would be, at most, $750. For high-income people, the proportionate recovery would be somewhat greater of course; at the other extreme, people with too little money to be taxable would not be affected.

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