Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue set off a controversy in January when he announced a proposal to tax hospitals and health insurers on their revenues. This tax on MD health care will net Georgia about $317 million if the proposal is approved.
Not every state legislator is as enthusiastic about a tax on hospital-based MD health services, though, especially at a time when jobs are vanishing and employment lines are getting longer. Any tax on heath care, at the doctor, hospital, or insurance level, will surely affect the taxpayer the most.
The in-hospital MD health care tax Perdue is proposing is 1.6% and it comes as monthly premiums for health insurance in the state are expected to go up by $4.53 a month, with the fiscal new year beginning July 1, 2009.
Critics fear the increased monthly premiums plus any tax on MD health care services and insurance coverage will simply leave more Georgians unable to pay and increase enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program.