Pieces of the health care financing pies

November 25, 2009

In conjunction with the impending Thanksgiving holiday, specifically the dessert portion of the day, a blog item containing pie charts seemed fitting.

And since Turkey Day-related overeating or reckless wielding of a carving knife or straining your voice yelling for (or at) your favorite football team could result in a trip to the doctor, it's even more appropriate that we've found some pie charts dealing with health care reform.

All of us tax geeks and political wonks can be very thankful that instead of forcing us to squint at rows and rows of tiny numerals, the Tax Foundation (and its Tax Policy Blog) prepared colorful pie charts to demonstrate how the House and Senate propose to pay for their respective proposals.

The $848 billion health care reform legislation unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week is financed primarily through cuts to Medicare provider payments (which would save $330.6 billion, or 34 percent of the bill's 10-year cost) and a 40 percent excise tax on high-value "Cadillac" health plans (which would generate $149.1 billion, or 15 percent of the bill's cost), according to the Tax Foundation's review of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis.

 
Senate_health_financing_TaxFoundation112309

Click image for larger view

Across Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's more-costly bill — more than $1 trillion — also includes cuts to Medicare spending, but most of the money in that overhaul plan would come from a surtax on wealthier taxpayers.

House_health_financing_TaxFoundation112309

Click image for larger view

How will these pieces of revenue pie finally be sliced? Put on your budget apron and stay tuned.

Speaking of pies: Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which means family, friends, football and food, including pies. Here's hoping your holiday is a good one. And go ahead and have that extra piece of pumpkin pie. It is a holiday, after all.

Related posts:

Want to tell your friends about this blog post? Click the Tweet This or Digg This buttons below or use the Share This icon to spread the word via e-mail, Facebook and other popular applications. Thanks!

Share:

The More Tax Posts tab at the top of this page will take you to, well, more tax posts. You also can search below for a tax topic. 

Latest Posts
The latest Dirty Dozen tax scam list is familiar because too many are still falling for the schemes

March 5, 2026

Tax filing season is also peak time for tax scams. Be on the lookout for…

Read More
Hello Tax Season 2026

Happy New Tax Year! Are you ready to file your 2025 tax return? I know, too early to ask. But Tax Day 2026 will be here before we realize it. The Internal Revenue Service deadline to file and pay any tax we owe is the regular April 15 date this year. It’s also Tax Day for most of the states that collect income taxes from their residents, which is most of the states! If that seems too far away right now, don’t worry. As is the case every tax season, the ol’ blog’s tips and other tax reminders should help all of us meet our state and federal responsibilities. Procrastinators also will want to keep an eye on the countdown clock just below. It tracks how much time we have until April’s Tax Day, just in case we put off our annual tax task until the absolutely final hours and decide we need to instead get an extension request into the IRS by that date. (Note: I’m in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.)

Comments
  • This health care bill is a real mess. It will take years to sort this out and who knows how much money it will cost in the end.

  • I agree that it will take a while to determine if this all was worth it. Personally, I’d like to see us address other ills that we have as a nation. Keep your fingers crossed.

  • This new tax bill scares me, but the pie charts make me hungry. I think when its all said and done the spending on healthcare will be so much more than anticipated. Time will tell if it was worth it.

  • In conjunction with the impending Thanksgiving holiday, specifically the dessert portion of the day, a blog item containing pie charts seemed fitting.

Leave your comment