This came to my attention through a snopes.com weekly newsletter, so you can ignore most of the article. The gist is that a 2.3% excise tax is now being applied to purchases of whatever the US government considers "medical equipment".

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/medicaldevice.asp

Oh fine. They’re trying to make up for the huge national deficit on the backs of the sick and injured. What a plan.

bigger fatter changes are coming. You will start to see taxes on things that will make you shake your head. Medicare will rise. It went from $89 a year just a couple of years ago to $120 and is slated to rise to $240 next year. National healthcare is expensive and those insurance companies being forced to accept sick and healthy alike are not going to just eat the cost, they are applying for government aid and programs to keep up. So, again, we the people get to foot the bill while those in the know tap into programs and grants to cover their costs. You will see capitol gains taxes going to healthcare and even some portions of bakery tax doing the same. We are going to see taxes sneaking into every corner. A penny here, and a penny here may not seem like much at the moment, but if you add up your pennies at the end of the year it really does add it.

My SSDI check went up my 1% but the cost of being on the program rose past the raise and they took $10 towards the national healthcare tax. I also saw my pension rise by 2.4% as negotiated by contract and yet the fees, taxes and programs that were added on as well as my contribution to my healthcare plan soared. I got a raise, but my take home was less than before the raise. go figure.

If the USA goes the way of Canada, this is what your future looks like:

In Canada, with taxes upon taxes, the average middle class person pays over 50 % of earned income (includes taxes paid on disability and pension payments from private and government sources), back to government. The brunt of tax income comes from the working middle class and not from corporations which pay less that 23%; but the larger a corporation is, the more incentives they have available as tax write-offs...so some pay NO tax at all.

Lower and upper income earners pay far less income tax, due to available credits and deductions; but everyone still gets hit equally on products and services through Provincial Sales Taxes (PST 7%), the Harmonized Sales and Service taxes (HST 5%) and things like fuel taxes, carbon taxes, and an endless list of fees for everything from accessing hospital services to using roads via mass transit.

Tax Freedom Day is a simple, easy-to-understand measure of the total tax burden imposed on Canadian families by government. If Canadians had to pay all taxes up front, they would have to pay each and every dollar they earned to governments prior to Tax Freedom Day.
That day this year will be June 6th and sometime in August if additional fees are added in.

My advice to you is to watch your government and give careful consideration to what you wish for...you will pay for it in the end.

With love, Erika