Health issue

[mikester]

Fast comparison? You can get work done sooner and faster than we can. For us the wait time can be brutal. Have a cousin waiting on radiation therapy for a cancer problem. The clinic keeps putting him off; won 't assign an appointment The problem might be lack of the proper isotopes but my guess is that they'll blame the supply chain. The trade-off is cost. Faster and sooner come with a heavier price tag. Have heard horror stories of patients barely out of surgery and still in recovery and waking up to find a clerk leaning over them and wanting to know how the will be paying for their stay, or not being discharged until someone shows up to guarantee that the bill will be taken care of.

Up here, the last time I landed in the hospital, I drove myself to emerg, parked my S-10 in the emerg lot, walked up the stairs to the emerg walk in entrance went through triage, barely got to sit back down and along came a nurse with a wheel chair. Polite but determined, insisted that I ride when i wanted to walk. Less than 24 hrs later I had a pacemaker. The triage nurse couldn't figure out why I hadn't passed out; they couldn't get a reading on the cuff at the high end. Me? Felt fine. The cost?? All paid for by the taxes that I pay. Only thing i had to cover was the cost of the parking fee. A fast 5 bucks for two days +/-. Thing here is that even seniors continue to pay taxes. You get your pension, but that is classified as income so you pay tax on it. Sort of like a fiduciary revolving credit plan.



Nick

The big question is what percentage of your tax goes to medical ? And how bad are your property taxes ? Here in NY property taxes are crazy high. Im a lot less but I know people paying $15K-20K a year just to live in their house. We get garbage picked up twice a week. Roads are terrible. You need a permit to do almost anything to your house. I heard a rumor that soon you'll need a permit to put central AC in. Anything that makes the house worth more so the town can raise the tax. This part of NY sucks. Not sure what its like in other states.

 

[86LK]

The big question is what percentage of your tax goes to medical ? And how bad are your property taxes ? Here in NY property taxes are crazy high. Im a lot less but I know people paying $15K-20K a year just to live in their house. We get garbage picked up twice a week. Roads are terrible. You need a permit to do almost anything to your house. I heard a rumor that soon you'll need a permit to put central AC in. Anything that makes the house worth more so the town can raise the tax. This part of NY sucks. Not sure what its like in other states.

Tx
-8.5% sales tax
-garbage once a week, recycle every 2nd week (here in Austin)
-property tax varies due to lots of local entities and incremental tax rates but I currently pay ~$14k on a 2400sqft house valued at $900k
-no income tax but average salaries are a lot lower than elsewhere
-nice weather about 2 months out of the year, otherwise you got miserable and too damn hot

 

[ck80]

As for Georgia:

- state sales tax is 4% base, BUT, constitution allows for county/local governments to layer a couple of 1% special purpose local option sales taxes (SPLOST) designated for specific uses such as 1% to schools, 1% to roads, etc.

Functionally, expect a 6% or 7% sales tax almost anywhere.

- no sales tax/excise tax on vehicles with titles. One time title ad avlorem tax (TAVT) when you first purchase then never again.

- property tax highly variable with HUGE homestead exemptions based on your age. Houses are assigned a Fair market value (FMV) and the assessed value is pegged at 40% of your FMV. So, on 100k value, you're assessed 40k, then pay a millage rate which is usually all-in including state/county/city/school of around $16-19 per $1000 of assessed. Then, depending on location, you get your homestead on your primary residence. These get as big as many areas 65+ yr old are exempt from 100% of school tax plus 20k off your assessed. The. There are a half dozen or so special programs to reduce how property is taxed further based on areas in transition, how it's used, ag, conservation, etc.

Property values are assessed much lower than many other areas of the country as well. The place we just bought to fix up would currently have a FMV of $425k. Yearly property taxes will be just above $2300. Had we claimed no exemptions or homestead it would be $4100. That works out to be just a bit under 3000sq ft once additions are added up, and, a bit under 1.5 areas of land at the current place. We had another house outside metro Atlanta with 7ac, 2ac lake, all fenced in, 2000sf, and paid under $1000/yr. In the northern suburbs of atlanta (snob cobb) we had 2 acres, 3800sf, 4 cars of garage and workshop plus a 350sq macjine/woodwork area and paid $2300/yr.

State income tax: top tax bracket is 5.75%. For 62+ retired individuals or disabled individuals, you pay ZERO income tax on: pensions, annuities, SS benefits, interest, dividends, net rental income, capital gains, royalties, and 1st 4k of regular income per year.

Aside from all that, roads are generally pretty good, and, as long as you stay out of the liberal shitho1es things aren't bad.

Constitutional open carry. State lottery proceeds give free universal preschool. College tuition in state schools is basically free through combinations of Hope scholarships (3.0 GPA) and Hope grant (2.0GPA + need), then there's other Zell scholarships and grants named after former governor and of course your federal programs.

Honestly, I don't understand what the northern states do to need such high taxes and still claim federal money is needed for free prek and college programs.

Oh well.