Higher Medicare Tax Latest Proposal to Fund Health Care Takeover
Curtis Dubay /
The latest proposal to pay for a government takeover of the health care system is to increase the Medicare tax for those that earn more than $250,000 a year. This latest proposed tax hike shows Congress is desperate to find more revenue to pay for its excessively expensive health care plan.
The current Medicare tax is 2.9 percent. Workers and employers pay 1.45 percent each. It is unclear at this point whether both workers and employers would pay a higher rate, or just workers. Unlike the Social Security tax, the Medicare tax is not capped, so every dollar of wages earned by workers is subject to the tax.
Taxpayers pay the Medicare tax during their working years and receive coverage for hospitalization during their retirement. It already takes in less revenue than necessary to pay for the hospitalization coverage of current retirees. Raising the tax and using the revenue to fund a new entitlement does nothing to fix this shortcoming.
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