Yet... another... tax:

In his Tuesday budget message, Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to propose a tax on hospitals to leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal Medicaid cash to help pay for health care reforms.

Depending on how the tax is structured, it could bring in $300 million or more by mid-2009, legislators and industry experts estimate. That would be enough to help pay for Doyle's goal of providing access to affordable health care for 98% of Wisconsin residents.

Now who do you think will really be paying for this?  Not the hospitals, that's for sure.  It will be paid for by the patients.  In other words, Doyle wants to charge more to patients now, so that they can get "affordable" health care at a later date.  Here's a thought... why not drop the idea of a tax so that patients can get more affordable right now?  Because Lord knows, the affordable health care at a later date just won't materialize.

Via Dean.