Health care bill passage could mean income tax for NH

Thursday, November 5, 2009

To the Editor:

A single vote by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter will cause the State of New Hampshire to implement a state income tax.

The recently released House health care bill will cost $1.055 trillion according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate. Another $245 billion was extracted from the bill and moved to a separate bill to stop Medicare payments to doctors from decreasing, making the total $1.3 trillion. This amount will bankrupt the U.S. By some magic of increasing taxes the CBO calls this amount revenue neutral. The government is so very good at estimating costs (1967 Medicare cost estimate for 1990 was $12 billion; actual $110 billion. More recently the CBO estimate for 2003 Medicare Modernization Act for 10 year period was $394 billion; 2004 CBO estimate for same 10 years, $534 billion; 2005 estimate $724 billion).

In addition the bill increases families earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level to 150 percent to be eligible for Medicaid. The state is responsible for 50 percent of these huge increased costs. The bill includes no reimbursement to the state for these costs. How will New Hampshire pay for these increases?

By a state income tax, of course.

Our thanks go to Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lap dog (see photograph of her beside Pelosi at the bill’s introduction in the Manchester Union Leader Oct. 10, 2009).

I would also like to point out the lie Shea-Porter gave to many of us in New Hampshire. She proudly acclaimed that if you like your health insurance you can keep it. My wife and I have Harvard Pilgrim’s Medicare Advantage Insurance. We like it. This bill eliminates it. Carol Shea-Porter knew that when she lied to us.

Kent Messamore

Bedford