When is a tax not a tax?
Sen. Robson said that the Dems' Healthy Wisconsin plan does not raise taxes because it simply replaces what residents pay for their private health care premiums.
"If you call paying health insurance premiums taxes, we'll never get anywhere," she said.
She also defended the oil franchise fee as "not a real tax" because it goes after "big conglomerates" that have been "gouging" residents.
The cigarette tax is a "public health strategy" that prevents smoking and can be used to fund programs to help others quit. Fewer smokers mean less expensive health care for all, she said.
And the tax on hospitals proposed by Gov. Doyle and the Dems is a "way of leveraging additional federal money" for hospitals that have a difficult time recovering payment from MA patients, she said.
Rep. Rhoades challenged her assertions, saying that the Healthy Wisconsin proposal is indeed a tax because if you don't pay, the Department of Revenue will come after you to collect. And the plan raises payroll costs for employers, she said.
She also said that the hospital tax will increase the cost of health care for everyone because the hospitals will turn the cost back on to patients.
"We can not continue in this mindset that says we're going to raise taxes here to get more money from the federal government," she said. "That's a never-ending cycle."
