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Sunday, April 18, 2010

How Bad Is The New Health Care “Reform” Law? Myths vs. FACTS

1.) The law expands entitlement spending by over $1 TRILLION in order to “cover” $30 Million more people.

2.) It adds $500 Billion in new tax increases at a time in our nation’s history when a RECORD number of American’s pay NO INCOME TAXES! And if you believe the lie told by President Obama that your taxes will NOT increase if you make less than $200,000 as an Individual or $250,000 as a Married couple, you need to know the TRUTH! Hat tip to Mr. Jay Heflin over at THE HILL who wrote:

“Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — due to healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper. The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older.

Taxpayers can currently deduct medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income. Starting in 2013, most taxpayers will only be able to deduct expenses greater than 10 percent of AGI. Older taxpayers are hit by this threshold increase in 2017. Once the law is fully implemented in 2019, the JCT estimates the deduction limitation will affect 14.8 million taxpayers — 14.7 million of them will earn less than $200,000 a year. These taxpayers are single and joint filers, as well as heads of households.”Loss of this deduction will mean higher taxes for 14.7 million individuals and families making under $200,000 a year in 2019,”

3.) The law ROBS Medicare and Social Security (AND THEY’RE BOTH ALREADY BROKE!) In fact, the Trustees of Medicare & Social Security state that the total unfunded liabilities between both programs are now more than $84 trillion! Worse yet, as of March 2010 Social Security is NOW OFFICIALLY BROKE!

Unlike what you may have been told, the new law CREATES a $662 BILLION DEFICIT! How? According to the CBO report issued AFTER the “reform” bill was initially scored by them, the Democrats did NOT include the following expenses prior to the bills passage:

a.) 70 Billion for the “Class Act” (long term care coverage).
b.) $53 Billion that WILL BE ROBBED from the Social Security Trust fund.
c.) $71 Billion in appropriations needed to enforce the purchase of Insurance and to administer Obamacare (including $10 Billion for thousands of new IRS agents to “enforce” the Health Insurance purchase mandate and 159 NEW Federal Agencies to administer this behemoth.)
d.) $308 Billion that WILL BE ROBBED from the Medicare Trust Fund
e.) $208 Billion “doctor fix” that was passed AFTER the “reform” bill was passed on April 1st, 2010

Representative Paul Ryan breaks it down with an easy to understand chart:

4.) In order to keep the final CBO score under $1 Trillion they counted these TRANSFERS from Medicare & the Social Security Trust Fund as “A Savings”. What will be the REAL result of this economic trickery? Charles Krauthammer discusses the INEVITABLE “Value Added Tax“.

5.) $468 BILLION in additional spending on subsidies to purchase government approved health insurance.

6.) $48 BILLION in additional spending for Medicaid. Did I mention that Medicaid costs are growing by 23% this year? This MASSIVE expansion of Medicaid will lead to even LARGER budget deficits for States like California, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and many others already facing crippling Medicaid burdens. This is exactly why so many States have filed suit to protect themselves against the new health care “reform” law. In fact, the State of Georgia’s Insurance Commissioner has stated that he’s not waiting for the lawsuits, he’s saying no to Obamacare RIGHT NOW!

7.) A Huge new increase on Capital Gains tax of almost 4%. Who does that affect? Anyone with any SAVINGS, most especially those in the market. So not only do we have RECORD unemployment, we’re now going to lose EVEN MORE of whatever savings we have LEFT!

8.) The law has a DECADE of Medicare Cuts a DECADE of Tax Increases, and only 6 yrs of supposed benefits!

9.) Let’s say we could afford to add another $682 BILLION to our already MASSIVE $13 TRILLION debt. Does ANY ONE REALLY BELIEVE that’s ALL this legislation is going to cost us? Let’s look at some history:

a.) In 1965 the Fed projected that costs for Medicare Part A would be $9 Billion. They ended up being $67 BILLION.
b.) The Medicaid special hospital subsidy was supposed to cost $100 MILLION. Instead the real cost was $11 BILLION! That’s ONE HUNDRED TIMES GREATER!

10.) The law includes $132 Billion in CUTS to the Medicare Advantage program.

11.) One of the MANY costs associated with this law that were NOT included in the CBO score were the appropriations (money needed to fund the 159 new government agencies needed to implement “Obamacare”). $10 BILLION OF WHICH WILL BE SPENT HIRING ANOTHER THOUSANDS OF NEW IRS Agents! To whom you will report each month confirming purchase and maintenance of Government approved Health Insurance for each of your employees AND their families. How much will you pay?

12.) Depending on the size of your business, the law mandates that employers pay 72.5% of all of their employee’s health insurance premiums and 65% of all of their employee’s families premiums! What harm will this do to our American Businesses?

What harm will this do to our American Businesses? Companies like John Deere, Boeing, Caterpillar, Prudential Life, 3M, Honeywell, AK Steel Holding Corp, ITW, Valero Energy, and Allegheny Technologies have stated this new law will cost them MILLIONS.

13.) About those Tax Credits that are supposed to be so “helpful” to Small Businesses? Hat tip to NFIB for breaking down the TRUTH about those:

The CBO cites that just 12 percent of the small business population would benefit in any way. The credit is very restrictive and puts small business owners through a series of complicated “tests” to determine the actual amount of the credit. Three conditions must be met for small businesses to qualify for any portion of the credit:
Business size – Very few small firms will receive the full credit (only firms with 10 employees or less). For firms with 11-25 employees, the credit is reduced per employee. Firms with more than 25 employees get NO credit.
Average employee wages – The credit is tied to the average wage of workers. Only firms who pay their workers $25,000 or less are eligible for the full credit. The credit is reduced as the average wage goes up, stopping at $50,000. (Note: Average wage for a firm with 10 or fewer employees is approximately $27,000.)
Employer contribution – Only firms covering 50 percent or more of insurance costs will be eligible. The credit is only available for a maximum of six years, but healthcare costs will continue to increase well after those six years.

14.) The law imposes a tax on small business health insurance plans. Messaged as a “health insurance fee,” this tax is actually a tax on small business. The new tax is structured as an annual fee on insurers and it does not expire. The annual “fee” begins at $8 billion in 2014 and steadily increases to $14.3 billion in 2018. In subsequent years, this fee remains at $14.3 billion annually added to whatever the rate of premium increase is for that year. One thing health insurers (and the CBO) have made clear: new taxes on them mean new costs passed on to customers. Small businesses will be paying for this new tax.
· How it works: An insurer’s portion of the annual tax will be determined based on their market share. Insurers aren’t simply going to absorb this new, expensive tax.
· These new costs will be passed solely onto the fully-insured market (where nearly all small businesses buy their insurance) because Congress exempted self-insured plans (big business and labor unions are exempt).
· Early estimates from policy analysts show family premiums are expected to go up at least $500 per year.
· Simply put: This is not a tax insurers will be paying. This is a tax on small businesses’ health insurance plans.
· Small businesses already suffer from high and volatile costs increases; a new tax like this doesn’t help to reduce future costs.

15.) The law increases the tax paperwork costs on small businesses. The so-called “corporate reporting” requirement will place a new and enormous tax-filing burden on all small business owners. The cost of complying with the new filing requirements will increase the cost of doing business and falls disproportionately on small business owners.
· Businesses will have to send Form 1099s for every business-to-business transaction of $600 or more – a tremendous new paperwork burden.
· The costs associated with tax paperwork (on average, more than $74 per hour) is the most expensive paperwork burden that the federal government imposes on small business owners.
· The cost of tax compliance falls heavily on small business and is 66 percent higher for a small business compared to a large business.
· Complying with the tax code is especially burdensome to small business owners, because they lack in-house finance departments like most large businesses. This means the burden to comply with the paperwork is either handled by the owner or outsourced to an accounting firm.

16.) The Bill imposes an unprecedented increase in Medicare payroll tax. Since its creation, payroll taxes that fund Medicare programs have been dedicated specifically to funding Medicare. Not only does H.R. 3590 increase the Medicare payroll tax to 2.35 percent but it uses the additional revenue to pay for non-Medicare programs, creating a dangerous precedent to use payroll taxes to pay for more non-Medicare programs in the future.
· The bill adds a new tax on income over $200,000 for individuals ($250,000 for joint filers). Adding to the problem, wages are not indexed for inflation, meaning that more small businesses will face this tax increase each year.
· Since 75 percent of small business owners pay their taxes at the individual level, this tax will hit the business income of many small business owners.
· The businesses most likely to see the tax increase are those that employee between 20 to 200 workers. These businesses account for more than one-quarter of the American workforce.
17.) The law imposes a new Medicare tax on non-payroll income. This new tax continues the unprecedented trend of dedicating Medicare tax revenue to non-Medicare programs and also expands the tax to additional sources of income.
· Medicare has traditionally been funded by taxes paid on a worker’s wages. The new 3.8 percent tax on those reporting $200,000 in income ($250,000 for joint filers) will, for the first time, apply to non-wage income such as capital gains, rents, interest, royalties and dividends. (75 percent of small business owners pay their taxes at the individual level).
· Ninety-five percent of small business owners own real estate. Whether the real estate is sold for a profit or rented to another business, this income will now be subjected to an additional 3.8 percent tax.
· This new tax will deter investment in businesses and other profit-earning ventures.

18.) The new law allows ANYONE to purchase Health Insurance at ANY TIME regardless of Pre-existing conditions. That sounds very “fair” doesn’t it? There’s only ONE problem with that? Since they can buy it at ANY time without regard to Pre-existing conditions, THEY HAVE NO REASON TO KEEP THE POLICY once they’re treatment is over! What will that do? We don’t have to wait to find out. We just need to look at Obamacare’s evil twin “Romney Care” in the State of Massachusetts to find out.

19.) Arguably the most troubling language in the law is the new 85%/15% MLR (Medical Loss Ratio) Rule applied to all private Health Insurance companies. This new MLR could very conceivably bring about the END of all private Health Insurance companies in a very short period of time. Robert A. Book PHD & Senior Fellow of Health Economics at the Heritage Foundation explains why.

20.) Besides the MASSIVE taxes that begin immediately, MANY CUTS begin as well and the bulk of them will hit Medicare recipients. Oh and remember when we were told by President Obama & Speaker Pelosi that children would be able to get coverage for pre-existing conditions 6 months after the new bill was signed? They FORGOT to include that in the bill! So now, NOT EVEN THAT “benefit” will begin until 2014! That was, until the Health Insurance companies agreed to honor this new law NOW, EVEN THOUGH the legislation stated they did not have to until 2014!

Strangely enough, people have forgotten that THIS IS ALREADY THE LAW IN MOST STATES! The dramatic expansion of SCHIP already ensures that most children have access to guaranteed issue health insurance already. Although States like Arizona have recently terminated their SCHIP program because it has rendered them BANKRUPT. So be sure to check with your State SCHIP administrator to make sure there’s entitlement money left for you!

In addition, many States like Illinois have already passed similar legislation that allows children with pre-existing conditions to be insured on a guaranteed issue basis and to stay on their parents policy until the age of 26. Side bar: Are they REALLY still children at age 26?

21.) The democrats also left the 21% reduction in medicare payments to physicians out of the bill and state they will tackle that in another bill. BUT by NOT counting it in the final CBO score, they consider it “a savings”. By the way, that passed on April 1st, 2010 and here’s how that will not affect YOU. This 21% “doctor fix” passed AFTER the Mayo Clinic stated because of MASSIVE losses in 2008 they will NO LONGER BE ACCEPTING MEDICARE!

What will these kinds of cuts lead to? Health care rationing? Don’t believe me? It’s ALREADY happening! On April 10th, 2010 AFTER the new health care “reform” bill was passed. A woman in Florida was waiting for a bone marrow transplant and she was summarily DROPPED from Medicaid RIGHT before her surgery! Wonder if we’ll see the heads of the Centers for Medicaid Services at a “Congressional Hearing”?

22.) You know the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) that the Democrats “TRUSTED” to give “accurate predictions” on what the cost of their health care reform legislation would be? Yeah, their Director stated on March 8th, 2010 that the current U.S. Fiscal Policy is UNSUSTAINABLE.

23.) Speaking of the President, the law also EXEMPTS HIM & SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL STAFF MEMBERS FROM THIS LEGISLATION!

24.) Remember the other LIE promoted as a justification for this health care “reform” law. The one about “Uncompensated Care”? Yeah, here’s the TRUTH about that!

25.) Remember the law of “unintended consequences”. That ALWAYS applies to ANY Federal Legislation.
Click here to see the MULTIPLE NEGATIVE “side effects” of Obamacare.

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