“The new tax will raise families’ insurance costs by as much as $7,000 over a decade. And as is the case with the other tax increases, the blue states will be hardest hit…we are looking at the death of the private market, with single-payer as the only option.“
John Hayward
Human Events
12/12/2012
If you think it’s been horrifying to watch ObamaCare pop open like a jack-in-the-box filled with tax increases over the last couple of weeks, just wait until the huge new taxes on health insurance companies hit in 2014. A study commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) lays out the details:
The [Affordable Care Act] imposes a new sales tax on health insurance that starts at $8 billion in 2014, increases to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to increase each year. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the health insurance tax will exceed $100 billion over the next ten years.
“With full implementation of the ACA a year away, the focus needs to be on making coverage more affordable,” said AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni. “Taxing health insurance will have the opposite effect by making it more expensive.”
Ignagni noted that the health insurance tax will increase costs for individuals and families purchasing coverage on their own, small businesses, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, and Medicaid managed care programs. AHIP supports legislation (H.R. 1370, S.1880) that would repeal the tax.
Of course, this tax will be passed along to consumers through increased premiums, hidden even more lightly than most corporate taxes. Daniel Horowitz at RedState breaks it down into per-family numbers…
The article continues at Human Events.
Also at the site, Gingrich: After the cliff, GOP must have a plan
…House Republicans need to lift their eyes from the immediate “fiscal cliff” and design a strategy for coping with, slowing down, and then defeating the overall effort to create a radically different America.
Until they understand the larger strategic fight, they can’t possibly know what to do in the current short-term tactical situation.
Update: Van Jones To Help Obama Push “Tax The Rich” Class Warfare Campaign…
Update 2: Assploding Irony: 16 Dem Senators Who Voted For Obamacare Decry “Job-Killing” Obamacare Tax…
Sixteen Democratic senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act are asking that one of its fundraising mechanisms, a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices scheduled to take effect January 1, be delayed. Echoing arguments made by Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a “job-killing tax” — and also impair American competitiveness in the medical device field.
The senators, who made the request in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are Franken, Richard Durbin, Charles Schumer, Patty Murray, John Kerry, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Joseph Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Robert Casey, Debbie Stabenow, Barbara Mikulski, Kay Hagan, Herb Kohl, Jeanne Shaheen, and Richard Blumenthal. All voted for Obamacare.
Two other Democrats, senators-elect Joe Donnelly and Elizabeth Warren, also signed the letter. Donnelly voted for Obamacare as a member of the House. Warren was not in Congress at the time….
Read the whole thing…
Update 3: Don’t forget: The coming death-tax dropkick
Part of the upcoming “Forward, over the fiscal cliff!”-scenario we’re potentially looking at includes a big hike in estate taxes (or, as they’re perhaps more aptly called, death taxes). Currently, the estate tax is applied to inherited assets at 35 percent after a $5 million exemption; most Republicans and even a mix of Democrats are in favor of lessening or eliminating the death tax altogether, but if President Obama gets the tax deal he wants, estate taxes will go up to 45 percent after a $3.5 million exemption…
…The effect of heightened estate taxes on small businesses, farms, and ranches is brutal, as Heritage outlines in the video below, and provides ample explanation for why many rural Democrats are against the idea…
A video of Milton Friedman is in the article.
