Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cry in unveiling the House’s massive reform bill might as well have been “Viva la health care revolution!”
Thank you, Madam Fidel. Or is that Hugo, or Mao…
The House Health Care bill has bloated to an enormous nearly 2,000 page monster.
And we are all the citizens who will get trampled by this one.
The grand unveiling of the Revolution wasn’t open to the public, “Because that’s how we’re handling this event,” a person trying to get into the “ceremony” was told.
But, of course, we don’t want anyone to ask any tough questions. And not bask in the magnificence that is Speaker Pelosi, Mrs “drain the swamp” of corruption herself.
Truth be told, most lawmakers are excluded too. As the Hudson Institute’s Hanns Kuttner noted on the National Review Web site, you would have to devour 221 pages a day to have read this life-changing legislation in its entirety before it comes to a vote, promised for before Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
That’s $2.2 million dollars a page.
And that’s only the beginning.
“the cost of coverage would shift from a percentage of income to a percentage of the premium, no matter how high the premiums go.” This will be a big, unpleasant surprise for the working middle class.” Kaiser Health News’ Julie Appleby reported.
So your coverage would be based on the premium. The more and higher the premium, the higher the coverage. Or the reverse, since this whole debacle is based on lower premiums. So that means LOWER COVERAGE.
Whoops!
Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson on Wednesday revealed that the Senate bill’s excise tax on “Cadillac” plans “targets a lot of Chevy plans as well.” The tax follows a formula based on the consumer price index plus 1%. But if medical costs and insurance premiums rise significantly higher than the CPI (Consumer Price Index)— a near sure thing — a lot more plans get taxed.
Reminiscent of the Alternative Minimum Tax, a measure to soak the rich will end up drowning Joe Sixpack. Meyerson warns: “If employers opt for cheaper policies to avoid the excise taxes on more-expensive plans, their savings may not be passed on to workers as higher wages but simply kept by the employers. Out-of-pocket health costs for workers would rise, but into-pocket wage increases to cover those costs might not be forthcoming.”
The Alternative minimum Tax was passed in 1968 to to soak a few Millionaires the Democrats felt weren’t paying enough taxes. Problem is, the tax once let out of the barn quickly grew like a weed.
Washington Post 11/11/2006:
Democratic leaders this week vowed to make the alternative minimum tax a centerpiece of next year’s budget debate, saying the levy threatens to unfairly increase tax bills for millions of middle-class families by the end of the decade.
They created the Monster themselves!
And now we have the New Monster. That they promise won’t go rampaging through The Village and destroy everything.
Hope and Change!
President Obama is planning to reduce the cost of medical care by taxing it!
So how many “not one dime” of taxes is that exactly?
Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.
Oh, yes, your kind compassionate and sensitive IRS Agent…
Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of **2.5 percent** of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”– George Orwell
Example-Medical Devices Tax:
President Obama invited them to the White House to cut a deal. They refused.
Now we have the wrath visited upon us. It’s not a tax on us directly, so he can claim he didn’t raise taxes, evil capitalists did.
Nice.
It assesses an industry-wide payment which firms must make in proportion to their market share. It bars the them from passing along the cost of the assessment by charging more for certain basic products, but allows them to raise the price of others to raise the funds for the fee.
So, the result will be that virtually every piece of advanced surgical equipment will be subject to a price increase to meet the levy from Washington. No matter that these devices often make the difference between life and death and that, in effect, taxing them raises the cost of vital treatments. The vengeful White House will have its pound of flesh from the medical device industry for daring to be independent and to refuse to knuckle down to Administration pressure!
Valves, prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, hearing aids, and such are essential therapies that make life longer, better, and less painful. To tax them makes no sense. Except in the world of sharp elbows and interest group politics that grips this take-no-prisoners and show-no-mercy White House. (Dick Morris – former Clintonista)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House bill appears even more expensive. It would impose $150 billion in Medicare cuts on the pharmaceutical industry, and a 2.5 percent tax on companies that manufacture medical devices (Page 339).
So that device that will save your life will cost you more to save it.
BUT THAT”S NOT A TAX!
“So even though this bill tries to hide these costs as indirect taxes,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, recently told a business symposium, “average Americans who purchase health plans, take prescription drugs, or use medical devices will end up footing the bill.”
Another likely frustration for consumers: The premium hikes and taxes will take effect right away, while the subsidies and benefits in health care reform won’t kick in completely until 2013/4 and in some cases 2019.
BUT THAT’S NOT A TAX INCREASE!
That’s how they make it allegedly not add to the deficit, they tax you into the ground BEFORE you get any “benefits” from it. After that 10 years, the sky’s the limit.
BUT THAT”S NOT A TAX INCREASE!
Don’t you feel better about that Hope and Change now!
Now for a summary of just some of the Tsunami of Taxes…
Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted. HSAs will effectively be killed by a final provision, which requires that most plans provide first-dollar coverage for most services.
Pg. 1516 regulates vending machines: In the case of an article of food sold from a vending machine that ‘‘(I) does not permit a prospective purchaser to examine the Nutrition Facts Panel before purchasing the article or does not otherwise provide visible nutrition information at the point of purchase; and ‘‘(II) is operated by a person who is engaged in the business of owning or operating 20 or more vending machines, the vending machine operator shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the article.
Yes, that’s right! Evil Capitalist Vending Machines must be regulated in order to keep your fat ass from buying that Oreo Cookie! That’s surely going to reduce your premiums!
Pg. 31, under a section titled, “Sunshine on price gouging of health insurance issuers”: The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with States, shall establish a process for the annual review of increases in premiums for health insurance coverage. Such process shall require health insurance issuers to submit a justification for any premium increases prior to implementation of the increase.
“Well, we’re sorry Company X, but we don’t feel that’s justified. You’ll just have to eat that cost.” And go out of business. Ah, we’re terribly sorry about that.
The bill adds a new section to the federal tax code: “‘PART VIII:HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES.’ Among the new taxes are penalties for individuals who don’t purchase insurance and employers who don’t provide insurance, income tax surcharges of up to 5.6% to those earning more than $1 million, and a 2.5% excise tax on medical devices.”
Pg. 132: The bill creates the Office of the Ultimate Bureaucrat Health Choices Administration headed by the Health Choices Commissioner. Among the commissioner’s duties (he will be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate): “establishment of qualified health benefits plan standards,” “administration of individual affordability credits under subtitle C of title III, including determination of eligibility for such credits,” auditing insurance exchange participants to provide “accountability” for meeting his established standards and billing those insurance companies for the audits, collecting unspecified “data,” penalizing, suspending payments to, and terminating insurance plans that don’t meet exchange standards, establishing ” effective and efficient administration of the Health Insurance Exchange,” and “development of standards for the definitions of terms used in health insurance coverage, including insurance-related terms.”
No word on who will hold this unelected bureaucrat accountable for doing any of this well or fairly. Maybe they can bring back Van Jones?
But hey, look on the bright side, we will have a new federal office.
A brand new Bureaucracy and someone to look out for you…
And, who doesn’t need another of those?
Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).
Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs (Flexible Spending Accounts) would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).
Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)
Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.
Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI –modified adjusted gross income–over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.
Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act
Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.
Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.
Americans For Tax Reform put it this way:
A word search of the 1,990-page House healthcare bill (H.R. 3962) reveals that the term “tax” is used 87 times, “taxable” is used 62 times, and “excise tax” is used 10 times.
Other terms of interest are as follows:
House Healthcare Bill (H.R. 3962)
Term Number of uses
“Tax” 87 times
“Taxable” 62 times
“Excise tax” 10 times
“Taxes” 15 times
“Fee” 59 times
“Penalty” 113 times
“Require” 118 times
“Must” 58 times
“Shall” 3,424 times
The Bill:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/10/29/get-your-house-health-bill-here/?mod=blogmodAnd it will only cost $1 trillion Dollars over the next 10 years (after that all bets are off).
Promise.
“If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase. Not by one dime. Not one dime.”
“You will get a tax cut . . . these checks are on the way.”–President Obama 2/24/2009
Trust Me!
Kick back and have a new federally excised-taxed Soda and candy bar from the newly-taxed Vending Machine.
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