Instead of trying to digest all of the latest Senate HC Bill released finally by Harry Reid, I went directly to the Revenue Provisions (pages 1979 through 2074) sections at the end; where else would they be hidden? Several of the sections provide only word changes to other acts, so you have to know something about the other acts to even understand what they are referring to. Here are some highlights that will scare you:
Section 9001 is a Tax on Insurance providers. Phew, not me, huh? Of course YOU; every tax gets passed through to the consumer. What? You didn't learn that yet? Given some defined annual cost limits ($8,500 for individual or $23,000 for family; what you pay + what your employer pays) on EMPLOYER health insurance plans, the insurance prover gets to pay (and pass along to you) a 40% tax on costs above those annual costs. But wait? How about UNION members? Add to these annual limitation costs another $1,350 (individual) or $3,000 (family) if you work in any of the following industries or high-risk categories: repair/installation of electrical/telecommunications lines, law enforcement, firefighting, out-patient emergency jobs, construction, forestry, fishing, agriculture (except food processing). Also increase these limits by 120% for year 2013, 110% for year 2014, and 105% for year 2015 if you are in the top 17 highest cost states in 2012. And, remind you employer to calculate and pay these taxes (ouch, poor small businesses) monthly to avoid a penalty on top. I have yet to figure out where the Insurance provider pays for it! Regardless, YOU end up paying higher premiums.
Section 9004: Have an HSA/MSA? Need to withdraw money for non-medical use. Well, the penalty for that will go from 10% to 20% starting in 2011.
Section 9008: Imposition Fee on drug companies who have revenue sales above some fixed aggregate amount. Now that's an incentive to to innovate. I would venture to guess this will kill Research and Development in America leaving us with generic drugs that may or may not absorb the same and higher risks of side-effects. If you can figure out this section, let me know. It appears that they would have to pay some proportion of $2.3B based on their revenues compared to all revenues. Good luck determining this. I wouldn't get my hopes up with my interpretation, but I did see something that eluded to the taxes collected going into the Medicare B trust fund.
Sections 9009 and 9010: Like 9008, let's tax the medical device manufacturers and insurance companies too for excess revenues/profits. More incentives to lay off people to manage operations with fewer dollars! Or, just pass the taxes through to YOU again!
Section 9013: Here's a gotcha. Remember Schedule A where you itemize your expenses? Remember that only medical expenses must be above 7.5 % may be included? Well, it's going to be 10% between 1/1/2013 and 12/13/2016. Now you are paying higher taxes directly imposed on you in addition to all the other taxes passed onto you via higher premiums as above.
Section 9015: You making more than $200K? Or jointly more than $250K? Congratulations, you get to pay an additional 0.5% of you pay the hospital (your payment + insurance payment). Actually, it may be in addition to another 1.45% which is one of the few-word changes in another act on top of the 0.5%.
Section 9017: And forget that Cosmetic Elective Surgery. You won't want that hip or knee replaced. Unless you want to pay an additional 5% tax on the total cost regardless of whether you pay or you insurance pays.
Enough? Surrender? Can you see why you will be paying more in Premiums AND Taxes? Can you understand why companies will be laying off more people? Can you understand why companies will continue to move portions of their company out of America? Can you understand why small businesses will dry up? Please note that over 70% of new jobs created are by small businesses. Can you understand why Obama has now stated (no more than 2 days ago) that we may experience a double valley recession? Is this what you want for you and your children? Killing the economy is reason enough to postpone ANY Health Care Bill that attempts to solve everything in one package. This bill is 2074 pages! Use you Common Sense. Write your congressman or congress woman. READ this article also that was just posted.
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