Steve Breen by Steve Breen

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  1. fennec

    fennec said, 5 months ago

    An insurance company bureaucrat?

  2. dtroutma

    dtroutma said, 5 months ago

    MY insurance companies “review team” of nursing school students, who overruled my DOCTOR, for sure!!

  3. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    The Big Lie continues.

  4. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 5 months ago

    President?

  5. cdward

    cdward said, 5 months ago

    The bean counters have done for medicine what they did for the newspapers – made it about money not the service they once provided.

  6. fennec

    fennec said, 5 months ago

    cd. I think youhave it in one!

  7. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 5 months ago

    oh, it’s the afflack insurance quack, of the healthcare type

  8. cabrobst

    cabrobst said, 5 months ago

    Replace unelected profiteers —insurance companies— with elected officials whom we can collectively throw out on their buns.

  9. chimera

    chimeraGenius_badge said, 5 months ago

    Attacks on universal health care have just one objective: to keep the Profit in their hands.

  10. Nurb

    Nurb said, 5 months ago

    To answer the question:

    people in the insurance companies who try not to spend money on those that pay them.

  11. wittyvegan

    wittyvegan said, 5 months ago

    I’d call it the european system which costs lower parts of the GNP than in the US. It’s far from perfect but it’s much better than a for-profit-system.

    At least for the patients.

  12. Right_On

    Right_On said, 5 months ago

    … and average tax rates for the middle class in Britain are at 47% with proposals that could take it to 60%.

    At what point do they take all of your money? When they hand you your brown shirt.

  13. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    47% ! HA!

    As if!

    Make up another one!

  14. motivemagus

    motivemagus said, 5 months ago

    Right_On, conflating socialism with National Socialism is low, to say the least. And as I’ve posted elsewhere today, 30% of our medical expenses go to administrative fees, whereas 3% of Medicare and the VA system do the same. We’d SAVE money going to a government system, if only by removing the entire, extremely profitable, insurance industry from between us and our health care.

  15. ChuckTrent64

    ChuckTrent64Genius_badge said, 5 months ago

    I’m praying that any public system is better than the VA.

  16. Right_On

    Right_On said, 5 months ago

    Doc,

    At $58,500 (US), Brits pay 40% income tax, and 12% national insurance tax.

    Indeed, 47% was wrong, it is 52%.

    http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Work/Employment.htm

    Any Questions?

  17. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    I see your mathematics skills are right down in the basement along with your reasoning skills. Get someone to help you learn how to read a table, for heaven’s sake, before you start pretending you understand statistics.

    58,500 works out to 35,415 pounds. Income tax is 20%, as it’s below the 36,000 cap.

    Full health coverage AND social security is 11% as it’s below the cap of 770 per week.

    What percentage of YOUR income do you spend on income tax, health insurance premiums, and social security contributions? It’s 31% for the Brits.

  18. Right_On

    Right_On said, 5 months ago

    No, doc, it’s fat fingers. Should have been $59,500, not $58,500. You know that 36,000 pound cutoff is where they tax the hell out of you.

    In the US, you are “rich” when you make over $250,000. In the UK, it is over $60,000 (try telling me that a $60k salary doesn’t get the 52% tax).

    It’s a slippery slope on taxes, they are coming, and they will be steep.

  19. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    Fat fingers, fat head….whattaya gonna do?

    I still see 20 + 11 on less than 59,500, and 40 +1 on anything above.

    Where’s the 52% from? You can’t ADD them.

  20. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

    Silence from the Right.

    Figures.

  21. oldlegodad
  22. furnituremaker

    furnituremaker said, 4 months ago

    So…the Brits pay out what…50, 67 percent in taxes? Figure what WE pay. If you are self employed, you have to take 33% right off the top…then, you have your state income tax (in most states), sales tax, tax on utilities, tax on gas, tax on tires and batteries, and the list goes on ad nauseum…WE pay close to 85 percent of our income on taxes when it is all said and done…AND we don’t have universal health care…what’s wrong with this picture?

  23. David

    DavidGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    If you think your insurance company is bad wait until you see what problems your government will create.

  24. HUMPHRIES

    HUMPHRIESGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Ask “Right On”(talk about a contridiction of terms) How much would he pay with cancer eating at his spine? Or for that matter if a family member becomes a candidate. Just love these “it’s my money but let the establishment provide for me” mentals.

  25. omQ R

    omQ RGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    47% ? 52% Er, no.

    Not taking into account indirect taxes from VAT and the such (I don’t smoke and drink moderately):

    Income taxes in the the UK are tiered:
    (there were some changes recently with tke ommision of the 10% tax band but check the tables from the IRS below)

    http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

    Dr C was correct, 20 +11 to a certain level, then 40+1.
    One doesn’t pay 40% for the WHOLE income.

    Assuming an average employee:

    First £6,475 is untaxed.
    From £6476 to £37400 @ 20% (NI:11%)
    From £37401 + @ 40% (NI: 1%)

    National Insurance/NI:
    http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

    I pay on average 33% on my total package icluding OT hours. All my overtime hours are taxed at 40% (in 2 years I actually doubled my gross salary, usually I get about an extra 50% OT hours)

    Without NI in the picture and figures taken from my annual P60 statements:
    2002/3 :28%
    2003/4: 28%
    2004/5: 27%
    2005/6: 28.7%
    2006/7: 30%
    2007/8: 31.2%
    2008/9: 28%

  26. Michigander

    Michigander said, 4 months ago

    A huge malpractice suit.

  27. anat622

    anat622 said, 4 months ago

    Can we safely assume Steve Breen has left uclick?

  28. fennec

    fennec said, 4 months ago

    Dunno. He won the Pultitzer this year.

  29. oldlegodad

    oldlegodadGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    I was going to bring that up. This toon was posted 28 JUNE. Others have been up longer when the artist semi retired.Of course uclick still has the last Opus posted.

    Breen is still at work, but the archive does not match what has been posted here.
    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/breen/archiveindex.htmlarchive

  30. parkersinthehouse

    parkersinthehouse said, 3 months ago

    i think breen is on cagle.com

  31. Liberty_Mill

    Liberty_Mill said, 3 months ago

    A Wall Street Journal article the other day mentioned that a hang up in Congress on the health insurance reform is whether the government or the insurance companies should make decisions regarding care in individual cases where the care may be very costly or where treatment may not be completely successful. There was no mention AT ALL of whether the patient or the doctor would have any say. Health care reform is needed but the decision maker has to be the patient and doctor. The problem with the govt’s approach is that they are framing it as a fight between insurance companies and government bureaucrats where there is no role for the individual to have any say over his or her own health care. That should have every single American who can say ‘civil liberties’ ready to march on Washington until those idiots start focusing on people instead of pissing over bureaucratic territory.

  32. Liberty_Mill

    Liberty_Mill said, 3 months ago

    and I agree with the commenter above who mentioned that not-for-profit health care is better than a for-profit system. The motivation in a for-profit health care system is not what it should be and the only way around that is a not-for-profit approach.

  33. tkueny

    tkuenyGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    For me, Government Health Insurance works great, never a problem, and I haven’t heard anyone complain about it.

    It’s called MEDICARE.

  34. jphacksaw

    jphacksaw said, 3 months ago

    Comments about Britain do not mention that if you have been laid off you don’t pay icome tax or NI but you still get health care!!

  35. BroadwayCarl

    BroadwayCarl said, 3 months ago

    Where is Breen? This cartoon is two months old.

  36. Michigander

    Michigander said, 3 months ago

    He’s spending the summer in Cancun : )

  37. NoFearPup

    NoFearPupGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    I thought I was going to make it through the “B’s” without vomitting…Thanks, GoComics! …Back to the drawing board.

  38. oldlegodad

    oldlegodadGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Steve Breen needs to be replaced by Deb MILBRATH as he has been dropped by uclick (he is still working) See ViewsAmerica.

    are you monitoring dumb @$$ uclick web weenies??

  39. oldlegodad

    oldlegodadGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    uclick dumb$hits Remove this toon.

  40. NoFearPup

    NoFearPupGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    I suspect that you are an un-diagnosed sufferer of OCD oldlego, J u s t s a y , “N o. I w i l l n o t b1 t c h about Breen a n y m o r e” ….You sound like a Lib [or a Baptist ;^)].

    Deb Milbrath would be too far up the alphabet list. How about Eric Allie?