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I think we need to see Sarah Palin take this one on. Pretty please?
The statistics are scary when it comes to the percentage of unborn children born with special needs who become victims of abortion. One fiscal conservative group says the task for parents raising such children is made more difficult by extra taxes found in Harry Reid’s new Senate health care bill.
The measure has already been condemned by pro-life groups and the Catholic bishops for its abortion funding and this latest analysis won’t make it any more endearing.
Ryan Ellis of Americans for Tax Reform notes that the bill contains 18 separate tax increases — one of them targeting parents of disabled children.
“One of them caps the amount that can be deferred in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2500 per year (a similar provision was included in the Pelosi-Obama health bill),” Ellis notes.
“There is currently no limit to how much can be saved, though all monies must be used by the end of the year. Employers may put a cap in place for their employees, but this would put a cap in federal tax law for the first time. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), 30 million American families use an FSA,” he explained.
Most Americans won’t notice a $2,500 cap as FSAs tend to be used for things like small deductibles, co-payments, eyeglasses, over-the-counter medicines, and laser eye surgery.
But parents of special needs children will, he says.
“There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly-cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children,” he said today.
“There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year,” Ellis added.
In fact, IRS Publication 502, Medical Expenses, explains how, under current tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education
“You can include in medical expenses fees you pay on a doctor’s recommendation for a child’s tutoring by a teacher who is specially trained and qualified to work with children who have learning disabilities caused by mental or physical impairments, including nervous system disorders,” the guide notes.
“You can include in medical expenses the cost (tuition, meals, and lodging) of attending a school that furnishes special education to help a child to overcome learning disabilities,” the IRS adds.
“Overcoming the learning disabilities must be a principal reason for attending the school, and any ordinary education received must be incidental to the special education provided. Special education includes teaching Braille to a visually impaired person; teaching lip reading to a hearing-impaired person, or giving remedial language training to correct a condition caused by a birth defect,’ the guide adds.
If Ellis’ analysis is correct, the unborn and the disabled are further victimized under a bill that is already fraught with concerns over abortion, rationing and the promotion of assisted suicide.
How sick and twisted do you have to be to be willing to raise taxes on the parents of special needs children? I mean, honestly, I’d love to know what’s going through the heads of Democrats as they’re crafting this particular part of the health care bill. “Gee, I think that special needs families just don’t have it hard enough yet. Let’s make it even tougher on ’em just for shits and giggles!”
If there’s anyone who can bring this matter to national attention, it’s Sarah Palin, and it deserves to be exposed. And if there’s anyone who can demonstrate how evil and demented this is, it’s Sarah Palin. Let’s hope she finds out about this and unleashes the hell on the Democrats that they deserve for this.
Justin says: Hm… put a tax on special needs children, and provide funding for abortions… whatever could it be that the liberals are trying to say with this legislation.
I guess the pro-choice movement hasn’t shed the eugenic attitudes that founded it yet.
Amen. What would be the purpose of capping Health Care FSA’s?
1. Raise more tax revenue
2. Remove the incentive to manage and pay for medical expenses yourself
I started an FSA last year – conservatively low. This year I increased it. Of course, I don’t want to lose the money if I don’t use it. That provision needs to be amended, allowing you to carry over a certain portion each year if you overestimate your needs. Luckily, my employer gives us until March of the following year to spend the money.
One of my co-workers has an autistic child. He doesn’t use his FSA. I think he’s crazy for passing that up, but the use-or-lose provision makes it seem risky to people.
A combination of tax credits, health FSAs, interstate competition, and de-linking health insurance from employers is all we need to fix most of the health insurance problems.
The key “problem” though that people see with health insurance is rationing/cost control. The bottom line is that regardless of whether health insurance is public or private, scarce resources must be rationed. You can’t always get what you want, but you might get what you need. For extras, you can dig into your own pocket (with a tax break from your FSA).
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