Letters from NYC

Dear Lisa:

Thanks for forwarding Paul Krugman's op-ed piece to me. I'm sure you did so trying to enlighten my moderate/centrist views by trying to prove that the media is biased against Kerry. Unfortunately, you're both way off the mark here. In all fairness, this is one time you really can't blame lack of coverage of Kerry's Health Care platform on a biased media. Nope, you can't even blame it on what Krugman is calling the "Triumph of the Trivial." in the news. The reason Krugman hasn't found any information regarding Kerry's Health Plan is because their isn't any. At least there wasn't anything new in his acceptance speech that he didn't say in the primaries. Nope; no details, no updates, not even fine print.

Oh, on the johnkerry.com website you'll find the following general outline embedded within several pages deep, but there's nothing new since the primaries. Well, except for John Edward's name being added to the site. Here's the general outline:

"The Kerry-Edwards plan will provide $177 billion in tax credits to make health care more affordable for people and businesses that BUY into the new Congressional Health Plan. These credits include:

- A 25 percent credit for seniors aged 55 to 64 whose salaries fall below 300 percent of poverty.
- A 75 percent credit for people between jobs and whose salaries fall below 300 percent of poverty.
- A tax credit of up to 50 percent for small businesses that cover low-to-moderate income workers.
- A tax credit for workers not eligible for other provisions of the Kerry-Edwards plan. This credit would limit premiums to less than 6 percent of income for workers below poverty, then phase out to 12 percent of income for workers at 300 percent of poverty."

Please note, that you have to BUY into his plan in order to be eligible for it. You also have to PAY ALL your premiums and then, only if you file your income tax, and providing you meet the income/deduction qualifications imposed by the IRS, then and only then can you get your money back as a tax credit.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention one very, very important thing: when you fall 300% below the poverty level not only are you eligible for Medicare (another Federal Health Care Program made more robust under Clinton), you're also too freakin' poor to worry about health care. Why? Simple, you're too busy scrounging for food and how to pay for electricity and heat to care if you live or die!

Now in the interest of fair play and objectivity, I will examine what these extremely poor folks options are, other than suicide. Regarding every child being insured.... they already are under a federally funded program, free of cost to low income parents (as a result of Hillary's Health Care Commission). It's also available to middle class parents at a moderate cost. It's been that way since before Clinton left office.

As for the millions of people uncovered by health insurance, the federal gov't currently gives money to states (also done under the Clinton Administration) in which those families that fall through the cracks (not poor enough to be eligible for Medicare and still not financially able to afford health insurance) are able to get insurance at reduced premiums with HMO's. BTW, small businesses are also covered in 16 States under a similar program, where low cost premiums are available to employers and their employees.

FYI, this money is given by the federal gov't, in a lump sum to each state earmarked specifically for health insurance programs for it's citizens not institutions. In NYS, Pataki used the state's surplus to match federal money and created the Small Business Health Insurance Program, the first of it's kind in the nation, which was quickly adopted by other states.

Now my question is, how does Kerry actually intend to cut "government" waste and "bloatedness" if he's adding layers to the federal health care programs already in existence. Oh, wait, I just got it! Maybe he plans to do away with Medicare. Wow, why didn't I think of that. That's a really effective cut in waste. Then my financial calculations on how Kerry's programs will be paid, that is without "increasing taxes". The math will finally jive and balance out without increasing the deficit too much. Hmmmm, that's an interesting concept. If you only insure the abject poor, then those that are only struggling financially will eventually fall into a hole and thus meet the financial requirements to be eligible for his programs, and so then everyone is insured. I must say, it’s a clever plan.

So as you can see, the reason there's nothing out there for Kruger to read, is because there is nothing out there for anyone to read. God forbid they publish something and put the fine print in print. Then of course there's the campaign, the road trip and all. They've been to busy to flesh things out and update their site. Oh and there's the complexity thing. You and I both know Health Care is sooooooo COMPLEX, we really can't be trusted to understand it all. They really want us to leave it to the John's.