Ask the Question...

As an employee, 1.45% of your pay is withheld each month for your contribution to your future Medicare needs, but that's not really accurate. That's a slight of hand with numbers.

Your employer "matches" that 1.45%. If you current think of that as an "employment benefit" they've had you thinking backwards for a long time.

All the money your company pays in was generated on YOUR ENERGY. If you didn't work, they would not have produced goods or services to cover that bill and it would not have been paid to the government.

If they put all 15% on your paycheck and then took it all away, instead of half, you would have woken up decades ago.

Your ACTUAL baseline tax for social security and Medicare on all your income, with nothing decreased by a tax exemption is 15.3%. 2.90% of that is for your contribution to Medicare.

If you fall back on the "oh, that's just symantics excuse" remove the crutch. It's your energy we are talking about and it makes a big difference to your understanding and perception related to your overall tax burden as a US Citizen.

If you work from age 21 to age 65, and you "average" $36.000/year, by the time you get to 65 you have paid in

36,000 x 44 = 1,584,000 total earnings

1.58 Million x 2.9% = $45,936 prepaid into Medicare AND they want another 165 a month and deductibles and you only get 80/20 coverage.

Some may say, well, that's not that much. I don't mind paying the extra 165 a month...

For you all we need to dig a bit deeper...

Keep this simple. Assume you made $36,000 every year from age 21 through 65. No raises. No adjustmens for income. Assume you put 2.9% of your 36,000 income into savings earning 4%. That has a value at age 65 of $120,491.