Your Future New Tax Bill

The morning I showed up was the day after my dentist had been to the accountant. Understandably, he was still fuming at expenses and deductions that had not saved him from an unexpected tax bill.

Given the mouthful of buzzing, grinding, lasering and stinging instruments that could have been inserted in a fit of trembling rage with in my tender oral cavity, I used my most sympathetic and calming tones, stating that I felt his pain! Since my accountant's visit wasn't much more pleasant, then, too, I could have used some novocain for the 1040.

Only a short time ago, we all had to sit down and undergo the punishing process of doing our taxes. We struggle to find mortgage deductions, investment credits, equipment purchase, car leases, "business meals" and dependents to be itemized - all in a valiant effort to defervesce the tax burden.

It is an annual rite of passage that we face the IRS (our personal internal revenue reducing service) and the State Board of Equalization (appropriately named because after paying out the tax rate of 10 percent, our income seems greatly equalized closer to zero).

While we do live in a nation and state that is worth paying to support, it is ironic that although overall health care GDP expenses are increasing and the tax rates creep upward, the rates we receive as physicians in inflation- ad-justed reimbursement are but 40 percent of what they were 10 years ago.

Additionally, Medi-Cal reimbursements are the lowest in the nation and the prospects of further Medicare and Medi-Cal cutbacks for the future are very real. If unchallenged by organized medicine's efforts, rates will decrease 30 percent for Medicare (the de facto standard to which all Medi-Cal and commercial rates are pegged).

So as we are accustomed to receiving our annual governmental tax solicitations for some rather meager return of service, let's consider what it would be like if you had another tax statement - one sent out by the California Medical Association (CMA). Perhaps it would read like the table below.

Even for an Enron accountant or those of us who don't balance their checkbook regularly, it is easy to see the value. The benefits earned by the CMA and SSVMS to our patients, society and our own well-being far outweigh the meager cost and represent a phenomenal return on investment! Hedge funds, real estate, and even corporate HMO executives stock options pale in comparison.

Ask your non-member colleagues about how they feel about their state and federal taxes. After the expletives cease and you have wiped the spittle away, remind your non-member colleagues of the taxes they have not paid this April. Clip the table out and present it to them. Then let them know about this potential tax bill that the CMA and our county medical society and YOU have prevented them from receiving! Then ask them to join and do their part.

Make your colleagues understand that without the support of the nation-leading CMA and SSVMS they would otherwise be faced with an annual medical tax bill like this and a far more dysfunctional medical community poorly serving our patients.

Without the ongoing defense of CMA and SSVMS, come some April, physicians in California would be faced with a 39 percent federal tax bracket, a 10 percent state tax and this future Medical Tax.

Undoubtedly, with this scenario April would be a very ill-tempered month for physicians. My dentist's reaction to his taxes was bad enough now; but in that future April or May, I would much rather then visit my dentist than my proctologist!

Support CMA/SSVMS for a pain-free future. It won't hurt a bit.

rajones@sbcglobal.net