Consumers Hit With Surprise Tax in Obamacare Premium

Outerlimits Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:36 pm

Obamacare isn't just impacting the uninsured. Americans who already had health coverage before the Affordable Care Act will likely pay more this year and even more in the years to come.
Insurance companies, faced with new Obamacare fees and taxes meant to help fund the law, are planning to pass along the added costs to consumers. This includes the multibillion-dollar annual “Insurance Providers Fee,” which took effect in January and is assessed to each company based on its share of annual premiums collected by the entire industry. This new fee is expected to raise $8 billion this year and more than $100 billion over the next decade.
Though the fee is crucial to financing Obamacare, industry experts and administration officials have confirmed that it will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums or out-of-pocket costs – an issue that’s been a concern to both advocates and adversaries of the law since it took effect in 2010.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/02/26/Consumers-Hit-Surprise-Tax-Obamacare-Premium

This wasn't a real surprise to anyone with the slightest bit of objectivity and knowledge of mathematics. You simply can't cover millions more people, Increase minimum coverage, add price caps to certain demographics, mandate coverage of pre-existing conditions, and add an enforcement bureaucracy without increasing the overall cost.

Obama claimed it would actually LOWER costs! Laughing

The only way you could possibly expect lower cost is if there was a vast increase in overall operating efficiency of the system, which the government is not capable of doing.

If you're going to give one person a break on their premiums through subsidies, it means that someone else is going to pay more, either by means of a new tax or higher premiums.

Obama and the Democrats are trying to play a shell game where they convince their base they don't have to pay for the goodies, and the burden shifts to others.

Harry Reid is trying the “don’t believe your own lying eyes” messaging strategy. I believe MOST of us can see right through that.

News Buzzard Thu Feb 27, 2014 2:34 pm

Outerlimits wrote:The only way you could possibly expect lower cost is if there was a vast increase in overall operating efficiency of the system, which the government is not capable of doing.

Healthcare in the United states costs twice as much as anywhere else in the world. Do you think the healthcare delivery industry is capable of making a "vast increase" in overall operating efficiency on their own, or are they irreparably incompetent? The purpose of Obamacare was to make them more efficient, and healthcare cost increases have been slowing down since Obamacare was passed.

Obamacare is here to stay! Get over it!

Outerlimits Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:20 pm

Like I said,

It is obvious to those with even slightest bit of objectivity and a basic understanding of mathematics that the costs would increase. Anyone willing to look into the Sections of the Law would quickly realize: if people were going to get taxpayer provided subsidies, somebody else would have to pay for it.

Add all that to the waste/fraud/lack of accountability/cronyism/kickbacks/ and a massive increase in Federal Government size and scope, how could an honest person say this was going to be less expensive and better care? An honest person couldn’t and that is why we have Obama/Pelosi/Reid lying every day about this disaster.

"Insurance companies, faced with new Obamacare fees and taxes meant to help fund the law, are planning to pass along the added costs to consumers.”

News Buzzard Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:27 pm

56% of respondents in a Kaiser poll want the law kept in place, with 48% of them wishing to see improvements

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/02/26/republicans-worst-nightmare-true-support-repealing-obamacare-hits-time.html

I'm good with improvements, but it's very difficult dealing with the Party Of No! It has been since day 1.