December 31, 2013
By: Bobby Casey, GWP Managing Director
Get ready for it. Prepare thyself. January 1st is opening day for one of the worst, and sneakiest taxes ever to slither its way into the tax code since inflation itself.
Welcome to one of the many hidden and ubiquitous “taxes” found in Obamacare, so aptly named after its namesake – the Obamessiah.
This “tax”, is not even classified as such by the IRS. No, the IRS calls it a fee. Except it functions exactly like an excise tax on premiums. This “fee” will raise an estimated $8B in 2014 and $101B over the course of the next ten years.
This flat fee is imposed upon all insurance companies according to their respective market share. However, here’s the irony:
- Any entity that self-insures his employees’ healthcare cost is exempt. Considering that 80% of all companies with more than 500 employees and nearly all union-negotiated health plans are self-insured, that is a huge exemption for big corporations.
- Additionally, insurance on government entities are exempt from this fee.
Wait. What? Read that again.
Let’s frame this a different way: Insurance companies are forced to pay a fee on premiums starting January 1st. That fee will clearly be passed on to the ones paying the premiums. However, a large number of bigger companies are exempt from paying this fee making the fee spread primarily across small companies throughout Amerika.
Yet another attack on small businesses by the Obamessiah. The poor suckers who work for and run small businesses are taking it on the chin… again. Yikes.
The mental giants in Washington are telling businesses the fee will be covered by large insurance companies. Meanwhile, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) claims the fee will be passed on to consumers through higher premiums.
The Joint Tax Committee along with the CBO estimates insurance premiums will rise by ANOTHER 2 – 2.5%. Yet another promise broken by the Obamessiah.
According to all the media hype, the ACA was supposed to expand coverage to those uninsured – which is rather amusing since, in actuality, millions of Americans have now lost coverage leading to yet another exemption. (Read: “Obamacare: Exceptions Leading to Failure”.)
In addition to the expanded coverage, it was also supposed to lower the cost of healthcare – although nearly everyone claims to have seen increases in premiums. And now all Americans are looking at another 2 – 2.5% increase in premiums.
The NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) research shows that higher insurance costs will lead to a loss of 146,000 to 262,000 jobs over the next 10 years. And 59% of those losses will come from small businesses.
But don’t worry folks….the brain trust in Washington will find new ways to manipulate employment numbers in order to brainwash you into thinking unemployment is actually falling.
In my view, the end result will be another round of small businesses dumping their health insurance coverage for employees out of dire necessity and for survival, thus pushing those people into the massive failure known as Healthcare.gov.
Of course that was probably the whole point to begin with. We will never see a single-payer socialized system until the government can take full control of yet another industry. But first, the free market has to be framed for failing the American people… and that’s what the ACA is meant to accomplish.
Until next time, live well.
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I passed this article along to several people and got the comment back that this was a republican sponsored addendum to the bill. I couldn’t, as much as I wanted to, argue with the statement because I don’t know enough about it. Is this a fact or not?
Paul,
Whether it was republican or democrat sponsored really doesn’t matter does it? They are both parasites preying on the populace treating us like milk cows for their pleasure. At some point I hope Americans wake up to the reality that the 2 party system is just a joke and you lose either way, but both parties always win. Vote with your feet.
I greatly enjoy reading your articles and this one is no different. In short, I do taxes. I spend an enormous amount of time trying to assist my clients in lowering their tax liability. When this new tax law took effect I tried and tried to engage my clients so that they could avoid this inexcusable taxation on the American public.
To be honest, no one was interested. Some thought that the tax law would never pass, this AFTER the tax law was passed. Then others thought that it would be overturned, I reminded them that no tax law has ever been overturned. I am embarrassed to say that many of my own kind (tax preparers) have stated to me that this tax law would never pass, AFTER it was passed.
I am going to attempt to help my small business clients avoid any penalties or taxation on this new tax law. I am disgusted that they have put the burden of the country’s health care on the shoulders of the average American and have protected themselves (government) and the pretentious big boys who feel entitled to avoid the ACA.
If Obamacare was really to help the public, then why didn’t they place a block on insurers in passing the fee down to the public? Why did they give a 1 year grace period for businesses paying their fair share of the ACA tax? Why did they give exemptions to big business? They should have required insurers to provide coverage regardless if someone is diagnosed with a critical condition thus removing the threat of cancellation of coverage. They should have put limits on what insurers and medical providers could charge thus making the services affordable meeting what the typical American earns.
Congress declined to make this a constitutional right because they would have to join in the new healthcare system and they knew the new healthcare plan sucked and they didn’t want any part of it; that is why we have a new tax called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Just my 2 cents……………
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The criminality of the 5 “supremes,” Roberts, Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer and Ginsburg is that they assert the “Final Solution” Health Care is a tax. But, first a determination should have been made: A tax on what? And at that point the question of “Do the politicians or anyone have the right to compel anyone to purchase any product or service? If so, then that person or persons are involuntary, stinkin’, naggar slaves, regardless of race! And that is anathema to America and the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution and for that reason the criminal “supremes” are the “slaughterhouse five” as they have condemned all to the human abbatoir.
Bobby,
I regualryly read you and your co-writers’ blogs. One area that always annoys me in the mainstream media which appears to now be a “standard” is that it is expounded that this and that legislation will “provide $X over the next ten years.” Please don’t stoop to actually quoting those idiotic forecasts by the government. Those idiots cannot even create a budget. Do you or anyone actually believe these boneheads can forecast over 10 years? They can’t even forecast 2 years.
It appears the NFIB it just about as stupid. As pointed out above, 146,000 jobs or more over 10 years. What? That is 14,600 jobs a year a year and peanuts in this economy. One large plant closing can do that.
Bottom line – don’t align yourself too quickly in your writings with the “statistics” espoused by either the government or the mainstream media or it may make it appear you buy their BS as fact. Obviously you do not, but be wary of what you quote.
Patrick,
I agree that stats can be manipulated and don’t always reflect the reality. We only quoted this as a way to illustrate the point. Clearly this “tax” was passed under the radar and will ultimately hurt small businesses and the lower-middle class the most. Even the small business lobbyist group (NFIB) agrees. Maybe their stats are questionable, but that doesn’t change the message.