Jason Flohrs: Public option isn’t the answer for Minnesotans
The pandemic has highlighted the problems with a bloated, broken and bureaucratic health care system – why double down on that failed approach?
Written By:
Jason Flohrs | ×
Jason Flohrs
Minnesota lawmakers are attempting to radically upend our health system under the assumption that “more government” is the best way to ensure access and affordability.
In reality, it will do the opposite.
Included in the health omnibus bill is the so-called public option, the next step on the state’s march toward “Medicare for All.” This allows the state to tax and regulate private insurance companies while at the same time directly competing with them. With government authorized to legally undercut their prices and subsidize their competition, why would these companies stick around? They’ll start withdrawing from Minnesota, leaving us stranded with only one option – the “public” one.
That really doesn’t mean much this year.
Why, you ask? If by chance you have been living under a rock for the last three weeks, the IRS extended the deadline this year (but only for 1040 tax returns) to May 17. My team and I are still working as if April 15 were still the deadline.
What does that mean, that the deadline was extended to May 17? That is a good question. It means that you now have until May 17 to file your Form 1040 and pay (if you owe) any amount due. By the way, if you don’t pay the balance due by then, late payment penalties and interest will begin to accrue on the balance due after May 17.
Press release content from Globe Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.
HealthEquity to Acquire Further
HealthEquity, Inc.April 8, 2021 GMT
DRAPER, Utah, April 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) HealthEquity, Inc. (NASDAQ: HQY) (“HealthEquity”), the nation’s largest independent health savings account (“HSA”) custodian, today announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Further, a leading provider of HSA and consumer directed benefit administration services, and the nation’s ninth largest HSA custodian overall.
The acquisition of Further and its technology expands HealthEquity’s leadership in the growing HSA market, enhances its ability to drive growth with health plans and other go-to-market partners, and adds to its Total Solution offering of remarkable products backed by trademark Purple service, education and engagement to help working families connect health and wealth.
HSA investments account for a bigger chunk of the business: Report investmentnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from investmentnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Determining your own long-term tax strategy is incredibly important, and to do it properly you do need to consider both the short and long-term direction of tax rates. While it s incredibly easy to assert tax rates will go up forever now, the truth is historical tax rates offer a different reality.
To be wealthy and alive in 1913 meant your tax rate capped-off at 7%. Which is a lot better than being wealthy and alive in 1944 when the top bracket taxed people at a 94% tax rate. The 1950s, 60s, and 70s all had tax brackets north of 70%. And while we can certainly look at the data and surmise how Americans felt about those tax brackets, I m not sure I can completely get my head around a 94% tax rate.