Max Sawicky wrote:
> the tax credit is refundable and is available to everyone
> whether they pay taxes or not.
>
> Ah, but only if you file. There are limits below which you don't even
> have to file. In order to get your credit, you have to get the IRS to
> spend a bunch of money to process your paperwork. What a waste!
> /jordan
> >>>>>>>>>>>
>
> How else would the Gov redistribute income, if not by
> taking some kind of application that indicated one's
> pre-existing income?
>
> Throw money out the window?
>
> mbs
Max - I think the point is that all these people who have Medicaid but under the Bradley proposal would need to find out if they will be eligible for this tax credit may not know about it. They may not have been filing income taxes at all (you don't have to file if you make under $25,000?). New roadblocks get constructed when big changes like this get made and there is a learning curve to overcome the lack of knowledge. Everytime there is a major change in policy there are casualties. Take the welfare reform measure. Technically, some of the women's children who left the welfare rolls were eligible for Medicaid but either did not know it or did not get through the bureaucratic process to apply for it in the correct way and ended up without benefits they were eligible for. When EITC was first enacted many eligible weren't using it.
Chuck's posts were illuminating and Ken Hanly made some excellent suggestions. I really like the idea of setting up community medical centers like the Canadian system where people can simply go get the care they need instead of being run through the obsfucations of the health care system in this country. Obsfucation works to the interests of capitalists and those who would thwart the public system that does exist so badly that people do not get served.
-- Marta