Thursday, March 25, 2010

First Payroll Tax and First Health Care Bill

 
In July, 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law "An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen," authorizing the creation of a marine hospital service, and mandating privately employed sailors to purchase healthcare insurance.

This legislation also created America's first payroll tax, as a ship's owner was required to deduct 20 cents from each sailor's monthly pay and forward those receipts to the service, which in turn provided injured sailors hospital care. Failure to pay or account properly was discouraged by requiring a law violating owner or ship's captain to pay a 100 dollar fine.

 

1 comment:

  1. I knew it. I just knew it. As reported on Fix news, John Adams and probably most of his founding father cohorts were indeed radical socialistic Nazi communists who were violating the will of the American people. :)

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