Janice MacKinnon tossed an electoral bomb into the lap of New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton on Wednesday, issuing a report calling on governments to introduce user-pay into the health care system through taxation of health benefits.
Ex-Sask. NDP finance minister proposes�user-pay tax�
A former New Democrat finance minister from Saskatchewan says Alberta should tax people for how often they use medical services.
Janice MacKinnon asks why would taxpayers want to continue to give millionaires free health care.
She says health care should be a taxable benefit based on use and income, as well as providing credit for healthy behaviour.
Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans says this is a very major change that MacKinnon is recommending that would have to be considered at a national level.� �
This is scary stuff.
The end game appears to be to make all rich people (those who earn more than K$65/yr) leave, thus saving the health care system. I guess you have to be some kinda smart ot be an NDP cabinet minister.
I believe what she is really asking is why we should continue to have millionaires.
Time to move all personal wealth off-shore to hide it from the socialists. Then we can all appear to be poor, but equal.
Except, of course, for all the Union managers and champagne socialists who suck blood from their slaves.
Given that the top 5% pay more than 40% of this countries tax, shouldn’t this particularly brain-dead, socialist’s question read, ‘Why would millionaires want to give lefties free healthcare?’
And which millionaire do we begin with?
Paul Martin perhaps?
Oh sorry, that’s right, he’s already enjoying private healthcare.
Nevermind.
” 5% pay more than 40% of this countries tax,”
and the top 10% of earners pay 92% of all income tax
. . call it a tax on success.
just out of curiousity, how does making $65k make anyone “wealthy”?
to a socialist . this makes sense.
They already do it with CPP, they clawback from people who scrimped and saved their whole lives to build a retirement nestegg that pays some interest.
If you have no savings, either because you couldn’t or you didn’t, they pay out the CPP.
They will sell this using teh same logic.
Very, very scary.
candace, if i am not mistaken, the top marginal income tax bracket kisks in at K$65, I believe. So, I presume that in the eyes of a socialist, that means they are wealthy.
so she works here janice.mackinnon@usask.ca.
she advises here http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=585
not quite the Fraser Institute
Candace, I believe that in a previous election campaign a former federal NDP leader was asked to define “rich” and answered anyone making over $65,000 per year.
paul, I think the clawback only applies to OAS, not CPP, which actually sounds reasonable to me. There is no point in paying a seniors’ supplement to people who don’t need it, but CPP is (in theory anyway) a pension program based on how much you’ve paid in over the years.
Forgot to mention, I took Kate’s scary stuff to be tongue in cheek. I can just imagine the reaction if the identical suggestion had come from a Devine or a Harris.
“tax people for how often they use medical services”
They tax you, use (some of) the money to provide medical services, then tax you on that? Why not just charge for medical services in the first place?
Actually I think this is progressive thinking from the NDP.
She is proposing to tax people who use the health care system through no fault of their own.
Surely she would equally support taxation of people using welfare. Or how about abortion clinics and AIDs services.
Kate’s right this is a very, very scary party.
I am not a millionaire but I am government certified rich….meaning i make more than 65k a year (ridiculous by the way)
Anywya, if the government starts making me pay for extra healthcare then I want FREAKIN CHOICE! Public private or mystical…..
Only a dipper could find the worst of all worlds
This bimbo thinks healthcare is a free good.Somehow, those that pay taxes don’t pay for the system.She’s right out of Alice in Wonderland.
If she wants to avoid having the rich suck the resources of out free healthcare, she could force them to to buy their own insurance and make them opt out.For them to have choice! Impose choice on the rich! Down with the rich, give them choice!
I’m sure this is what she really mean’t 😉
Another way of looking at this is that a former senior minister in an NDP government is recommending health care user fees and suggesting that perhaps free health care need not apply to everyone. While I disagree with her solutions, I find it interesting that someone with her background would be looking in that direction at all. I take this as a sign that serious health care reform is becoming more and more an acceptable topic of conversation in polite society, which can only be a good thing.
Sure, us free-marketers on Kate’s blog may not like the details of the proposal but I would think that Tommy Douglas worshipping Council of Canadians types have more reason to be nervous about this sort of discussion in the long run.
The way that I see this is: we pay taxes that supposedly pay for our “free” health care. Sooooo, would that not be taxing a tax? Is this not illegal(as if that ever stopped an NDP’r or a Lieberal).This is one of the most stupid and harebrained things I have ever heard of and in 61 years I have heard many. Soooo then the poor will stop using health care because they will be taxed on what they use. This affects all not just the “rich”. Sorry we fall into that category also.
If you click on all the links, you’ll discover that the text that reads
“Janice MacKinnon tossed an electoral bomb into the lap of New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton on Wednesday, issuing a report calling on governments” is a nearly exact copy of the news item over the Fraser Institute health care reform report by Manning and Harris. I occasionally use subtle sarcasm here. If it doesn’t make sense, try clicking on the links.. ok?
Have lots of babies and go on welfare. End of problem.
All the money in the world won’t cure the health care situation, it will only create more bureaucracy. What’s needed is either choice of private or public, or a health care system collapse from being top heavy….. were almost there…
Hey, I have the solution!!! Give millionaires the choice to use the private syetem then they would be paying for the poor to use the public system and would not be a burden to the public system themselves.Does tis make sense????
Her suggestion is exactly the way we handle tuition fees for post-secondary institutions in Canada and the most people have no problem with that. Funny, when a former NDP Minister talks sense people dismiss it as socialist. I say it is progressive.
Okay Kate, I finally get it. Sarcasm is your MEME.
Yes, it’s my MEME.. .lol.