I submit that the law is doing exactly what they intended it to!
 | | July 17, 2012 |
| | Health Care Surprises
by Kerby Anderson | | Two years ago, we heard the statement, “We have to pass the health care law to find out what’s in it.” We passed it; the Supreme Court declared it constitutional. And now we are finding out what is in the law and how it will be implemented. Public policy expert Dr. Merrill Matthews writes in “Forbes” about some of the problems and surprises in the Affordable Care Act.First, there is a bevy of new taxes. We are not just talking about the mandate or the penalty that Chief Justice John Roberts called a tax. There are at least twenty new taxes. For example, there is a 3.8 percent surtax on investment income as well as a surtax on Medicare for individuals in the higher income brackets; a ten percent tax on tanning services; a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical equipment; and a forty percent tax on comprehensive health coverage that costs more than the designated cap.The law will also turn us into a nation of takers. Already one-third of American households receive food stamps, Medicaid, or other forms of means-tested entitlements. Obamacare will expand that percentage significantly. For example, there are healthinsurance subsidies for those who participate in the exchanges with incomes up to four hundred percent of the federal poverty level.The new law has a maze of cross subsidies. This is a way of transferring wealth without using the tax code. For example, health insurers must accept people with pre-existing conditions, which is understandable. But it also put a cap on how much insurers can charge. So, in order for individuals with pre-existing conditions to get coverage at a less than their actuarial risk rate, the young and healthy must pay more than their fair share. If you run the numbers, you can see they must pay a lot more.Did we really need to pass the health care law to find out what’s in it? Sadly, many of the predictions made two years ago are now starting to surface as experts begin to analyze its impact. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view. |
Point of View | P.O. Box 30 | Dallas, TX 75221
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Posted via email from Steve Young with RE/MAX Associates posts
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