Thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama, American taxpayers are about to be hit with the largest tax increase in the history of the United States. According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes by 2019. But there are also heavy fines for those who refuse to buy the health insurance mandated by the bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care bill imposes approximately $69 billion in penalties for individuals and businesses who don’t meet mandates to purchase health insurance. This will be the first time in the history of the United States that the federal government has ordered Americans citizens to buy a good or service. But it is not just a small amount of money that the U.S. government is requiring all of us to spend. In fact, the federal government will be mandating that ordinary Americans pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do in federal taxes.
Just think about how bizarre that is.
It is a total government takeover of the health care system, and it is an absolute windfall for the health insurance companies.
No wonder their stocks have been heading into the stratosphere.
Before we take a look at all the taxes the American people will soon be paying, we should consider how much our health insurance premiums are about to go up.
According to one analysis, a middle class family of four making $66,370 will initially be forced to pay $5,243 per year for health insurance under the new system.
That would be bad enough. But once more of the provisions contained in the health care bill start kicking in that figure is going to go up significantly.
How significantly?
According to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2016, the average family health care plan will cost $15,200 per year.
Can you afford to pay that?
Well, whether you like it or not, the U.S. government will now be forcing you to shell out cash for health insurance.
And we all get to be taxed like crazy at the same time.
Oh joy!
Let’s take a look at some of the taxes….
*Section 9001 of the health care bill contains an excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans. In other words, if you have provided your family with the very best in health insurance coverage you get to be taxed extra. This tax is particularly harsh. It imposes a 40 percent tax rate on the portion of insurance premiums exceeding $8,500 a year for individuals and $23,000 a year for family plans. In an attempt to hide this tax, Democrats have imposed it on the employers who provide these plans to their employees.
What do you think the odds are that employers will simply quit offering these really good health plans to their employees now?
Also, keep in mind the the levels at which this 40 percent tax kick in will be indexed to inflation. Since inflation typically grows at a much slower rate than the cost of health care, an increasing number of employers will be confronted with this tax as the years go by.
*Section 9004 contains a very interesting provision. Taxes on money in a health savings account not used for qualified medical expenses will increase from 10% to 20%. For “Archer” medical savings accounts, taxes on money not used for qualified medical expenses will increase from 15% to 20%.
*Section 9008 of the health care bill imposes a $2.3 billion excise tax on the pharmaceutical industry. This tax is distributed throughout the entire pharmaceutical industry and it is not based on the income of the individual firms. Instead, the tax will solely be based on market share. So even if a pharmaceutical company is losing hundreds of millions of dollars it will still have to pay this tax.
*Section 9009 of the health care bill imposes an “annual fee” on medical device manufacturers and importers. Just like the tax imposed on the pharmaceutical industry, this tax on medical device manufacturers and importers will be based on market share and not on income.
*Section 9010 of the health care bill imposes an “annual fee” on health insurance providers. This harsh $6.7 billion tax would also be allocated based on market share.
Perhaps you don’t think that some of these taxes will impact you personally.
But just think about it for a moment.
Do you actually believe that the health insurance firms, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers will not pass the cost of these taxes on to consumers?
The truth is that American taxpayers will end up paying for all of these taxes one way or another.
*Section 9015 of the health care bill imposes an extra 0.5% tax on wages over $200,000 for those who file a single return and on wages over $250,000 for those who file a joint return.
*Section 9017 of the health care bill imposes an excise tax on elective cosmetic medical procedures. Any voluntary cosmetic procedures will now be subjected to a 5 percent tax. So now all of those nose jobs and boob enhancements are about to get a whole lot more expensive.
But as bad as all of those taxes are, that is just the first wave.
The second wave is in the reconciliation act that the House has already passed and is now in the Senate.
We encourage all of you to read H.R. 4872 – it is really a frightening bill.
The following are just some of the new taxes contained in that bill….
*A 2.5% income tax (more like a fine) on anyone who does not purchase health care insurance. This tax will be limited to an amount less than the average national health care insurance premium.
*A 1% tax increase on those making between $350,000 and $500,000.
*A 1.5% tax increase on those making between $500,000 and $1 million.
*A 5.4% tax increase on those making more than $1 million per year.
*For firms that do not provide health insurance for their employees, and yet do not qualify for exclusions, an 8% tax on wages will be applied.
Are you starting to get the picture?
When you add all of these taxes together, you get the biggest tax increase in the history of the United States.
That is going to make it really hard for the American people to try to live the American Dream.
In fact, these “reforms” are a whole lot more about money than they are about health care.
Under the new health care regime, the Internal Revenue Service will function as the government’s chief enforcer for health care reform.
Isn’t that lovely?
The U.S. government has taken over the entire health care system, and they are about to make a gigantic financial mess of it.
What in the world has happened to the United States of America?