I will turn 60 a few days before the Obama administration’s first birthday.
Let’s examine the financial landscape of my declining years through the prism of government policy.

My wife passed away in mid-2008 after a 28 year struggle with a progressive autoimmune disease.  In her final years, Nancy was plagued by multiple disorders, among them paraplegia, acute spasticity, trigeminal neuralgia, peripheral neuropathy and open wounds.   She endured an assortment of sleep and breathing disorders coupled with impaired cognition and chronic infections.    She moved back home from skilled nursing when she was referred to hospice and inexplicably lived almost 39 months, remaining in a fragile and precarious state throughout.   No amount of planning could have prepared us.

I managed with the assistance of some remarkable friends.  I was her primary caregiver, making a living in my spare time.   My father, sisters, daughter and sister-in-law all contributed financially over and above our own outlays of $250,000 plus.  I still owe about $55,000, but, I have some working years remaining.

My problems, though significant, can mostly be resolved with money.   At least, I regard it as a money problem.  The president sees it more as a social justice issue.  Social justice is also pursued with money, just someone else’s money.  The president lacks enthusiasm for the accumulation of private wealth, as is abundantly clear in his tax proposals.  Having a limited number of reliable working years remaining, my productivity will have to be dramatic in the short run.  A year or two or three of $250,000 earnings would restore my retirement savings, pay for  extensive dental care (deferred during her illness), satisfy my creditors and retire my back-tax obligations.  Frankly, this is very unlikely to happen, but the hypothetical deserves some examination.

Should I manage to defeat the odds and produce incomes in excess of $250,000, what does the president propose?  He wants to raise the top federal income tax bracket to 39.6 percent coupled with a surtax of 1 to 5.4 percent to finance his health care plan.  Our state tax rate calculates out to approximately seven percent.  Self-employed people pay the entire FICA tax (social security and Medicare) on the first $107,000; another 15.3 percent of my hypothetical income.  There is talk of a second surtax to fund the war effort.   Bottom line, a net take-home on the first $100,000 of taxable income;  less than $40,000.  In addition, the Senate is currently considering raising the Medicare tax for high income earners and the Social Security cap will inevitably be raised if not discarded completely.

And health insurance?  I dropped mine in 1993.  It was as an economic decision and the correct one. Purchasing medical services directly was cash positive for me in sixteen of the last seventeen years.

But now the president also wants to impose a constitutionally questionable mandatory health insurance requirement that would get me either way as a self employed person.     He would not only require me to purchase insurance but will also design the policy parameters.  This will, most likely, remove the option of purchasing low cost major medical coverage with a high deductible or a long term care policy. 

 

Those options would be preferable for me or any similarly situated individual.   In addition, it puts the government obligation in line ahead of my creditors.  This effect has not received one word of public discussion but consider the amount of money yet uncollected for medical services already rendered.  It will make the hard to collect accounts often impossible to collect.

It is important to note that my financial picture would not be markedly different had Obamacare been in place at the time.  The
proposed reform would have paid nothing toward the assisted-living and nursing home fees and made only minimal contributions toward the respite and home care expenses.  Nancy had medical insurance.  We incurred debt because Nancy was unable to work for the last fifteen years of her life and because I worked limited hours as she required round-the-clock care.

What policies would help now?

**   A simplified two-tier federal income tax rate, a lowered corporate income and capital gains tax rate.  This would encourage investment, lending and hiring.   A 60 year-old man depends on good economic climate and a fluid job market.
**   We should pass a dollar-for-dollar credit for medical payments (physician, hospital, therapy, medication and insurance) taken as an adjustment against gross income.  The credit would apply whether the taxpayer itemizes or takes the standard deduction.  Each taxpayer would pay for his medical services and insurance with pre-tax income.  

Some people need health insurance more than a new car.  Some need or desire a new car, graduate school or home remodeling more than health insurance.  Others need the dollars more than any of the above.  Everyone should control their personal resources and decision-making.  This administration has made overreaching into high art.   It needs to stop here.