April, 2015, Part 2, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: Taxes To The Left Of Them, Taxes To The Right of Them

Every month for the past few years we have had to dedicate any number of posts each month to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. This piece of legislation has to be the worst piece ever passed, given its detrimental effects on millions of Americans and their families. From losing access to their preferred insurance policies, doctor and hospitals to higher insurance costs to great risk of identity theft, the disasters from this law have been never ending and always a fiasco.

And the totally sad thing about the whole effort is that the legislation will never be successful in reducing health care costs in this country since it never addressed the root causes of the high health care costs in this country. For a list of those root causes, check out yesterday’s post at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/04/aporil-2015-part-1-unfolding-disaster.html

Today and tomorrow we will review the latest disasters that have cropped up for attention in the past month or so.

1) Robert Woods recently writing for Forbes discussed the many taxes that Obama Care unleashed on Americans and on our economy. Although Obama is always harping on how his policies only increase the tax burden on the wealthy, usually claiming that those Americans that earn less than $250,000 a year are not hit by his tax policies, Mr. Woods starts off his article by showing how three of the larger taxes do nothing of the sort:

- Obama Care imposes a 2.3% tax on medical device makers. The problem is that the tax is on top line revenue, not profits which makes it especially egregious. Thus, there is little doubt from most economists that medical device manufacturers, especially start up ones that may be in the growth mode with little profit cushion in their business, to raise the price on medical devices. 

But here is the reality: many people earning less than $250,000 a year are likely customers of medical device companies. They are the ones that will be paying more for their needs, contrary to what Obama might claim. This is a tax pass through as a result of Obama Care which makes it a tax on ALL Americans nonetheless. 

Adding insult to injury, a lot of these companies also make medical devices for family pets. So even if you do not need a device and will not be affected, your dog or cat might be if they are in need, which means you pay more. 

- Consider another Obama Care tax that could affect many Americans earning less than $250,000 in a typical year. The net investment income tax adds a 3.8% tax on top of your interest, dividends and capital gains. While tax supposedly only targets upper income earners, it would be interesting to hear Obama explain this tax is hard to explain this to a modest income family who sells their lifelong property and gets hit with an extra 3.8% tax on top of their capital gain tax. 

In many cases like these, middle class Americans are selling their long term house and downsizing into retirement, hoping and planning to use their home equity to support their retirement needs. And now Obama Care hits them with a hefty 3.8% tax, on top of their capital gains tax, dealing a serious hit to their retirement plans even though they may never earned close to $250,000 a year.

- Many Americans have very robust health insurance plans and policies from either their employer or their union. And I would bet that the vast majority of them do not earn over $250,000 a year. But in 2018, Obama Care comes after those so-called “Cadillac” policies with a whopping 40% tax benefits that exceed certain, and very reachable, thresholds.

So much for another Obama promise that those earning less than $250,000 will largely be unaffected by Obama Care taxes. Mr. Woods lists out all of the taxes that he can identify below, see how many affect your family even if you do not earn over $250,000 a year:

• 2.3% Tax on medical device manufacturers (this doesn’t hit you directly, but indirectly it sure can).
• 3.8% Net investment income tax. This one is a big one. Depending on your income, it adds a 3.8% tax on top of your interest, dividends and capital gains.
• Employer mandate on business with over 50 full-time equivalent employees to provide health insurance to full-time employees. $2,000 per employee $3,000 if employee uses tax credits to buy insurance on the exchange.
• 40% Excise tax on high-end (Cadillac) health insurance plans (40% excise tax on the portion of employer-sponsored health coverage that exceeds $10,200 a year and $27,500 for families).
• Medical deduction threshold tax increase (threshold to deduct medical expenses as an itemized deduction increases to 10% from 7.5%).
• Individual mandate (a tax for not purchasing insurance, though the tax penalty is called a Shared Responsibility Payment, the greater of 1% of your income above the filing threshold of $10,150 for singles and $20,300 for married couples filing jointly or $95 per adult ($47.50 per child), with a maximum of $285 for a family, whichever is higher. It goes up in 2015.
• Excise tax on charitable hospitals which fail to comply with the requirements of Obamacare.
• Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D.
• Medicare Part A tax increase of .9% over $200k/$250k.
• An annual $63 fee levied by Obamacare on all plans (decreased each year until 2017 when pre-existing conditions are eliminated) to help pay for insurance companies covering the costs of high-risk pools.
• Medicine cabinet tax (over the counter medicines no longer qualify as medical expenses for flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and Archer medical saving accounts (MSAs).
• Additional tax on HSA/MSA distributions.
• HSAs or Archer MSAs, penalties for non-qualified medical expenses of 10% to 20% in the case of an HSA and from 15% to 20% for an MSA.

So much for only rich people getting tax screwed by Obama Care, everyone feels the pinch for a law that will never accomplish its original objective.

2) Not only are Obama Care taxes numerous and bad, they get worse over time. Consider the following graph of how the tax burden increases over time, robbing businesses and individuals the freedom to keep their wealth and do with as they please:

Add caption

Thus, within seven short years, Obama Care’s 18 taxes (Heritage’s count) will be taking $120 billion out of the economy, stunting economic growth and employment growth. The sad part is that many of these taxes will take place after Obama and many of the short sighted politicians who actually voted for these taxes are out of office and will not feel the wrath and economic harm of their decision to back such a horrendous law.Consider Heritage’s take on what all of these taxes will do to the country: “At a time when the already-onerous tax code has created a significant drag on the economy, Obamacare’s tax hikes only do more damage. Many Americans have found themselves afflicted by higher health insurance premiums, driven up, in part, by new taxes on insurers. Increased rates on capital gains and dividends from the wage and investment tax hike discourage saving and investment, resulting in fewer jobs created and lower wage growth.Because of Obamacare, Americans are paying much higher taxes and those taxes are hurting the economy. Though some bipartisan efforts exist to repeal some of the new taxes that benefit special-interest groups, including the medical device tax, an incomplete approach won’t be sufficient to overcome the detrimental effects of this law.”Two quick updates but onerous in their message: taxes for everyone, lower cost insurance and healthcare costs for very few. More unfolding disasters from Obama Care tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:www.loathemygovernment.comIt is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.Please visit the following sites for freedom:http://www.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/http://www.robertringer.com/

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February, 2015, Bonus Post, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: 13 New Taxes, 13 New Lies

We had thought that yesterday would be the last update to our monthly series on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care but we came across some interesting,m and depressing information that we decided to share now rather than wait until next month. Too many times to mention, Obama has promised that only the wealthy in this country will see higher taxes, whether it was relative to income taxes, capital gain taxes, or Obama Care-related taxes. He actually gave a cutoff point, anyone earning under $250,000 a year would not see a rise in any of their taxes, at least relative to Federal government actions.

But like every other Obama promise, e.g. if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor, Obama Care policies will not pay for abortions, he would cut the annual Federal spending deficit in half, etc. this promise also was a lie and deception. According to a recent Forbes article written by Robert W. Wood, “How Many Obamacare Taxes Are There?”, many, if not most, of the taxes embedded in the Obama Care legislation will hit every American’s wallet in one way or another.

He went ahead and listed out thirteen taxes that he knew of within the law. He also points out that the tax complexities of the Obama Care legislation are so involved that the IRS had to issue a separate 21 page document just to explain what has to be done and the numerous forms that have to be filled out as a result of the taxes in the law. Thus, this tax season will be one of far greater complexity, stress, and likely financial pain as millions of American find out that the Obama Care subsidies they enjoyed in 2014 have to be paid back this year because those subsidies were too generous.

Thus, below are the 13 taxes he found along with some comments from us and why they will affect people that are not wealthy and whose annual earnings fall below the false $250,000 threshold the President promised.

1) There is a 2.3% tax on medical device manufacturers’ revenues, not profits. This tax will obviously hurt the financial performance of device manufacturers who will likely have to pass this tax impact along to their customers who purchase and use medical devices. 

It is not only human medical device owners that will be impacted. Since many of these companies also make medical devices for animals, pet owners, farmers, and ranchers will also likely see an increase in the prices they pay for devices as the companies try to recoup some of what Obama Care has taken away.

Now, some might say that this is not a tax on consumers who earn less than $250,000 a year which would be wrong. It is an indirect increase in life passed on because of an Obama Care tax which makes it a tax increase on everyone affected.

2) 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. This one is a big one. Depending on your income, it adds an incremental 3.8% tax on top of your interest, dividends and capital gains.

3) Employer Mandate on businesses with over 50 full-time equivalent employees to provide health insurance to full-time employees. $2000 per employee, $3000 if employee uses tax credits to buy insurance on the exchange. Same concept as point 1) above. If a small business is forced to buy insurance for their employees as mandated by Obama Care, those tax consequences are likely going to be passed along to the patrons of those businesses as those businesses just try to stay whole after being hit with an Obama Care tax. 

As an example, there have been a number of press stories where restaurants are actually itemizing the cost of Obama Care on diners’ bills, clearly showing why the cost of food in those restaurants has gone up as a result of Obama Care. An additional fee on eating is a tax despite what Obama might call it.

4) 40% Excise Tax on high-end (Cadillac) Health Insurance Plans (40% excise tax on the portion of employer-sponsored health coverage that exceeds $10,200 a year and $27,500 for families). This will hit a lot of Americans earning far less than $250,000 since many union contracts have these so-called Cadillac insurance plans negotiated into them and last time I checked, most union members do not earn more than a quarter million dollars a year.

5) Medical Deduction Threshold tax increase (threshold to deduct medical expenses as an itemized deduction increases to 10% from 7.5%). Any American with substantial medical expenses, regardless of income levels, will end up paying more since Obama moved the goal posts out for those that might be able to get some relief from high medical bills.

6) Individual Mandate (a tax for not purchasing insurance, though the tax penalty is called a Shared Responsibility Payment, the greater of 1% of your income above the filing threshold of $10,150 for singles and $20,300 for married couples filing jointly or $95 per adult ($47.50 per child), with a maximum of $285 for a family, whichever is higher. It goes up in 2015. Obviously, when the tax or “shared responsibility payment” starts at around $10,000, you are not talking about a tax on just the wealthy.

7) Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals which fail to comply with the requirements of Obama Care. Taxing hospitals will result in less money in their efforts to provide medical care to the sick, likely resulting in all income levels paying more for services from charitable hospitals.

8) Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D. Since most employers provide drug coverage for a lot of Americans earning under $250,000 a year, their will likely be additional fees incurred on all income level Americans as a result of this provision.

9) Medicare Part A Tax increase of .9% over $200k/$250k. Okay, so maybe this one only affects the wealthier earners.

10) An annual $63 fee levied by Obama Care on all plans (decreased each year until 2017 when pre-existing conditions are eliminated) to help pay for insurance companies covering the costs of high-risk pools. All plans means all Americans, not just the wealthy.

11) Medicine Cabinet Tax (over the counter medicines no longer qualify as medical expenses for flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and Archer Medical Saving accounts (MSAs). Again, taxation by removing a benefit for all Americans who have the foresight and initiative to do the right thing by saving on their own for medical expenses.

12) Additional Tax on HSA/MSA Distributions. Again, on all HSAs meaning most Americans who have one.

13) Health savings accounts or Archer medical savings accounts, penalties for non-qualified medical expenses of 10% to 20% in the case of a HSA and from 15% to 20% for an MSA. Fees and penalties for all Americans who violate these rules.

Obviously, the over $250,000 promise is a joke when it comes to this President keeping his promises. I do not know which is worse, the fact that this President continually lies or that millions of Americans still believe anything that comes out of his mouth. Everything, every promise, every assertion has been false.

All of these hassles, all of these incremental expenses, all of these lies, all of this stress, all for a program that has no chance of ever succeeding in bringing down the high cost of health care in this country.

More unfolding Obama Care disasters next month….unfortunately.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

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It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
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Janaury, 2015, Part 2,The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: More Gruber and Presidential LIes, A 2017 Price Tsunami, And Taxing/Stifling Innovation

We spent the week or so reviewing the latest insanity from the Washington political class. Wasteful spending by many different government entities but especially the Defense Department,  fraud riddled government programs, government programs that seem to always be over budget and under delivering, and a whole array of other insanity and idiocy.

We stayed away from the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care since that piece of legislation deserves its own, dedicated set of insanity posts. For many years, but especially over the past two years, we have written extensively on the myriad of disasters that this law keeps spawning. To review these past disasters, enter the search term  "the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care" in the search box above.

Today is the second in the two part update to the Obama Care disasters that began yesterday:

1) Most people who follow the Obama Care legacy of disaster and deceit know who Jonathan Gruber is. He was a highly paid, MIT economist that is now generally viewed as one of the architects behind the Obama Care legislation. His economic models helped pave the way for the fiasco of Obama Care.

He was also the one who has been caught on video tape discussing how stupid Americans were and how the whole process of developing the legislation was done in the most non-transparent manner possible in order to hoodwink the public and get the legislation passed. His arrogance and condescension landed him in the front of Congressional committees where he was forced to eat a tremendous amount of humble pie and crow.

But apparently his history of talking too much is still catching up with him. In recently discovered videos and documents of his words, it turns out that most people working on the Obama Care legislation knew up front that Obama Care would be tremendously expensive and that the so-called cost control components of the legislation were merely mirages to hoodwink the country into getting the law passed.

In a 2009 interview, Gruber flatly states: “Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don’t yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let’s get the people covered and then let’s do cost control.” In other words, lets lie now to get the legislation enacted and worry about the costs later, if at all, since we do not know how to control costs today.

But that was not the public message that Obama went forth with. He stated flatly that his legislation would “bend the cost curve” and not add “one dime to the national debt.” In other words, they all lied since we now know that Gruber knew and as did everyone else pushing this disaster that the cost control aspect was pure fiction, courtesy of Gruber’s inability to keep his mouth shut and his ego under control.

But the lies go on, still courtesy of Gruber’s big mouth: “The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can’t have something they want. It’s about telling patients, ‘That surgery doesn’t do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.’” In other words, we are talking about a version of what Palin got crucified for, ”death panels.” Here is a primary architect of Obama Care basically admitting that at some point in time, the government and the politicians that operate it will determine whether you and I are entitled to health care treatment.

That my friend is a definition of a death panel. Bureaucrats making life and death decisions for you despite the fact you were told that death panels were not a reality within the Obama Care realm. It is cost control via health care denial,  death panel and government edict. Thus, Obama on down lied about this also. They knew years ago that they had no clue how to control costs but said they did and never admitted that care denial was their only answer to cost control.

2) Speaking of cost control, Stephen Parente recently wrote about what is going to happen to Obama Care insurance costs in 2017 in his article, “Lull Before The Obama Care Rate Storm.” He points out that the rate increases on Obama Care policies were higher this year but not outrageously higher: “Americans visiting Healthcare.gov to purchase 2015 health-insurance plans are finding a nice surprise: Average premiums for the cheap “bronze” plans have increased only by 3.4% and premiums for the middle-of-the-road “silver” plans are rising by 5.8%, according to the American Action Forum. Where are the double-digit premium increases that so many predicted?”

Now this is still bad news in a sense since the President stated, in what is likely another of his many lies and deceptions, that the average American family would see a $2,500 annual decrease in their insurance policy costs once Obama Care was in effect. Obviously, the undelivered promise of a $2,500 decrease is a far cry from single digit increases.

But this disconnect gets far worse in a year or two. The legislation established two, temporary programs that make Obama Care policies far cheaper than the reality of the market: risk corridors and reinsurance. Without going into the gory details, the Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars to subsidize Obama Care insurance policy costs, administered through these two programs, until the end of the year 2016.

Beginning in 2017, these two programs are scheduled to disappear and the insurance companies will set their Obama Care policy costs based strictly on market conditions without the crutch of taxpayer support. According to Mr. Parente,  “This is why premiums on Healthcare.gov are cheaper than many predicted. The taxpayer’s generosity allows insurance companies to hide the true cost this time in 2016. That’s when you’ll see the real spikes.”

What happens when the taxpayer subsidies go away, which they will likely do since it is unlikely that the Republican controlled Congress is going to allow Obama to extend those subsidies beyond their current termination dates? Well a recent study from the University of Minnesota’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute took a shot at estimating the impacts of the subsidy withdrawal to insurance companies. Their forecasts are chilling from a family budget perspective:

• Bronze plans could increase 45% for families, to about $13,000 from $9,000.
• Individual plans could see a 96% spike, to nearly $4,000 from $2,000.
• Other plan types, silver, gold and platinum, will see smaller, but still significant, increases but they are already very, very expensive.
• Premiums for cheaper plans will increase at a faster rate because their deductibles will likely decrease to meet ACA regulations starting in 2016.
• The study’s authors and analysts estimate that premiums will continue to rise after 2017 at higher rates than they did BEFORE Obama Care was enacted. In other words, the legislation made a bad situation worse in  the long run.
• They go on to estimate that as costs go up, fewer and fewer people will pay for the now higher priced policies and will either move to cheaper, less comprehensive policies or terminate their insurance coverage altogether, the exact opposite of what Obama Care intended.

Now, whose number and forecasts should one believe, these from the University of Minnesota or Gruber’s MIT based forecasts? Given that Gruber’s models and lies have not worked out well or accurately, I would place my bet on the University of MInnesota’s models and forecasts since 1) many of them are already coming true and 2) their assumptions in 2017 are based on the reality of the legislation as it is written, i.e. those subsidies to insurance companies are going to go away.

So, higher costs and less people insured, the exact opposite of what the legislation set out to do. But so typical of Washington laws, they never attain their objective and usually make a problem situation worse. And in 2017, when premiums are skyrocketing and people are dropping their coverage, the root causes of our high health care costs, causes that we have listed numerous times in this blog, will still be present and still driving up health care costs.

Mr. Parent closes his article with a good description of the rock and hard place the legislation is in: “This leaves the Affordable Care Act in a precarious position. It was sold on the promises of affordability and universal coverage, yet neither promise can be kept after 2017. America’s debate over health-care reform is only getting started.”

3) One of the most negative aspects of Obama Care is that it has placed a tax on so-called medical devices to help pay for the legislation’s staggering costs. As a result, with less money to invest, medical device companies have been reducing their research and development expense, have restricted hiring or have already laid people off (with one comprehensive study estimating that 33,000 jobs have already been lost due to the tax), and have sought cheaper manufacturing options overseas, all because the taxes from Obama Care have impacted their operating profits.

This will have long term impacts across the board.The economy will grow less since more manufacturing would have left our shores. Unemployment will go up since hiring is constricted or reduced to keep expenses under control. And more importantly, with a reduction in research, life saving or life improving technologies in the medical device world may go undiscovered or delayed, making life more miserable for those the need help.

How real are these concerns? Quite real, if you believe the article recently written by Sean Hackbarth for the Heritage Foundation, “Medical Device Pioneer: If Medical Device Tax Existed When I Started I Wouldn’t Have Been As Successful.”

The pioneer is named Dr. Tom Fogarty and he is the inventor of the balloon catheter that is used to open blockages in blood vessels. His invention has probably been used millions of times to help get the blood flowing again in people's clogged blood vessels, saving lives, reducing health care costs, and making life more enjoyable for those with this  type of problem. Last year he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in a ceremony at the White House.

But he recently penned an article in USA Today where he made the common sense argument against the medical device tax of Obama Care: “There is no way I could have had the same impact if the tax on medical devices was in place when I started over 50 years ago.”

In another interview, this one with last fall with the Silicon Valley Business Journal, he explained how and why investment in American device startups has dried up along with the innovation  that these start ups might have brought to market: “It has had an absolutely huge impact. Nothing will start in the United States because of that tax. It will all go offshore. You can't start a business and pay taxes when you're not making any money. It's a non-starter. [The 2.3% tax applies to revenue not income.]”

That will do it for this update on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. We found more lies from Gruber and this President regarding cost containment and death panels, we can expect gigantic health insurance rate increases in less than two years, and Americans are losing out on what science and technology can bring to our lives and to reducing health care costs as a medical device tax is stifling innovation, inventions, and better lives besides hurting economic growth. Three big disasters from the biggest disaster of a law ever passed by Washington. 

Stay healthy my friends, you cannot afford not to an Obama Care world.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

August, 2014 The Unfolding Disasters That is Obama Care, Part 3: Higher Costs, More Narrow In-Network Coverage, and Higher Unemployment levels

Every month since last August we have had to do multiple posts each month in order to keep up with the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. It is easily the worst piece of legislation ever passed by the Federal government under any previous Presidential administration. Runaway costs, dysfunctional or non functioning websites, high potential for identity theft, less coverage for more cost, cancelled insurance policies, etc., it was a failure in every way imaginable.

And those failures have continued to unfold every month, which is why we are going to take a few days now to cover what has happened just since last month’s updates. Before we do that, let’s do a quick reminder of where the program is from a numbers perspective:

• The Obama administration claimed that about 8 million Americans signed up for an Obama Care health care insurance plan during the initial sign up period.
• However, recent research from reputable sources found that it is likely that only between 80 and 90% of those who signed up actually followed through and paid for and bought a policy.
• If we take the midpoint of that range and assume only 85% followed through with payment, that 8 million sign up number is really only 6.8 million real policy holders.
• But other reputable research found that only about 57% of those who signed up for an Obama Care policy were previously uninsured, the other sign ups already had health insurance coverage and just churned out to an Obama Care policy.
• Thus, the actual number of INCREMENTAL Americans with health insurance via Obama Care is 57% of 6.8 million or around 3.9 million people.
• That means that 2.9 million Americans were not incremental insurance policy holders, they just churned from an existing policy into an Obama Care policy.
• Somewhere between 5 and 6 million people had their current health insurance policies cancelled as a result of Obama Care, policies that often were perfectly fine and acceptable to those carrying those policies.
• If we assume a best case view from the Obama Care perspective and assume all of the 2.9 million people who were not incremental to the Obama Care numbers came from this pool of 5-6 million people, than the net number of Americans who lost health insurance coverage as a result of Obama Care is between 2.1 and 3.1 million people (5 or 6 million less 2.9 million people).
• Thus, we have to take the 3.9 million people that were truly incremental because of Obama Care and subtract out either 2.1 or 3.1 million, ending up with a net gain in insured Americans of between 800 thousand and 1.8 million.
• Thus, after years of trying, billions and billions of dollars spent, we may have gotten incremental, expensive, and narrow insurance coverage to less than two million Americans.

Only in Washington can the nation spend billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer wealth and end up with a problem that is hardly any better than when before the program started. Insane.

That is where we stand today. Let’s take a look at what disasters have come to the surface since we last talked about Obama Care:

1) One revenue component of the Obama care legislation was to impose a 2.3% tax on all medical devices. At that time, reputable economists pointed out that like any tax, economic growth and vitality would be suppressed, resulting in fewer jobs in the industry, less Federal total income taxes from those fewer workers that worked in the industry, and likely not as much tax revenue as the Obama Care supporters expected.

Well, low and behold, that reality is finally sinking in. According to an August 20, 2014 piece on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website:

• Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently stated: "Everything from this ill-conceived tax's structure to its implementation has been a disaster.”
• Why is it a disaster? For starters, while the IRS originally estimated it would receive between 9,000 and 15,600 forms to pay the tax in the second and third quarters of fiscal 2013, the IRS ended up receiving only 5,100 forms.
• Second, while the IRS expected to pull in $1.2 billion in the second and third quarters of 2013 from the device tax, according to the, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, took in just $913.4 million.
• And most insanely, the IRS Inspector General issued a report which says the IRS cannot figure out who should be paying the tax, four years after the legislation was passed. Pathetic.
• From a jobs perspective, a report from AdvaMed estimates that as many as 165,000 U.S. jobs have been lost because of the medical device tax. 
• Their report and research also found that research and development (R&D) has already been cut across the industry and more cuts are expected in the future, further depressing economic and job growth within the industry and nation.

Great, impose a tax, get less money than expected from the tax and kill thousands of jobs in the process. Could not do much worse unless you tried. And think about it. The $913.4 million is a gross number, you have to reduce that government revenue by the tax money lost because upwards of 165,000 mostly higher paying jobs were destroyed. 

If each one of those jobs resulted in about $5,500 in Federal income tax, Social Security tax, and Medicare tax being paid to the U.S. Treasury, not an unreasonable amount of money, than the Federal government broke even overall from a tax revenue perspective. The government broke even but I doubt that the 165,000 displaced workers would agree that it was the right thing to do. We end up with much ado about nothing except more heartbreak and hardship for average Americans with nothing in return.

2) An August 19, 2014 article from the Washington Free Beacon reviewed analysis work done by the Federal government which showed that American businesses were paying more to provide health insurance to their workers since Obama Care was passed. Remember, the President promised that health insurance costs would go down as a result of his legislation.

The analysis was done by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which found that:

• A majority of businesses polled expect Obama Care to increase the cost of their employee health insurance coverage.
• The median of estimates from the survey put the expected increase at 10% in 2015. 
• This year‘s survey, vs. last year’s survey, found an even larger majority of companies this year cited Obama Care as the driving force behind the cost increases.
• These expect increased costs will likely be passed on to employees in the large majority of the companies included in the survey by charging each employee a higher monthly premium for coverage. The survey also found that businesses are coping with higher costs by charging higher deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums. 
• Only a third of companies said they were not making changes to their health plans as a result of Obama Care.

We have yet to find any facet of American life or the American medical system where costs are actually going down as a result of Obama Care despite the lofty and deceitful promises that its supporters made several years ago.

3) Timothy Carney, writing for the Washington Examiner in an August 13, 2014 article came up with a crazy and dangerous potential financial disaster for his family as a result of Obama Care.

It seems that his wife is pregnant and they are expecting a child later this year. 

He has health care insurance coverage and was not too worried about the delivery expense since he had already fulfilled his annual $5,000 deducible for this year which meant that going forward through the birth process in the hospital, his insurance company would pick up 90% of the costs. He initially thought he was in good financial shape for the delivery of his child.

But wait a second. He had fulfilled the annual $5,000 deductible for “in network” medical expenses. As a result of Obama Care, his wife reminded him that the breadth and options on doctors and specialists within their network might be more narrow than before Obama Care, i.e. some of the doctors and specialists at the hospital they plan to have the delivery might not be in their network. He has a totally separate (and higher) deductible for out-of-network care, meaning that he could take a serious financial hit if they had to deal with any medical personnel not in their network. 

It turned out that some specialists in the hospital were in their policy’s network, some were out. Even worse, they could not request that only in network people serve their needs during child birth since only those specialists on duty when the birthing process began would be used in the baby’s delivery. Thus, the anesthesiologist might be out of their network, meaning they would have to pay the full cost. All because their policy had a very narrow choice of medical options, courtesy of Obama Care. More insanity.

That will do it for today and this month’s updates on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. Narrow policy networks could mean higher costs for policy holders, higher business costs means higher costs for employees as businesses pass those higher, Obama Care-cost through to them, and lower employment as a result of the medical device tax which is generating lower tax revenue than expected. Failures across the board.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

March, 2014 the Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care, Part 2: The Uninsured Stay Uninsured, More Job Losses, and Illega lChanges To The Legislation Continue

This is our second and definitely not last post this month on the continually unfolding disaster known as Obama Care as it rampages across our lives. We have been doing a monthly series on Obama Care since last August with about a half dozen posts each month. That many posts were needed each month because this legislation is so bad, ineffective, expensive, economy damaging, personal lives disrupting, and with no chance of ever being successful.

As you will easily see by reading our posts in the past eight months and the posts we have been doing on Obama Care for the past three years, this is easily the worst piece of legislation ever enacted by the most inept set of Washington politicians ever. 

As we said yesterday, we will not go into our solution for resolving the problem of ever escalating health care costs this week. You can read and comment on our solution in past posts we have already published. There is so much bad coming out of the legislation every day that this week we are focusing just on the disasters, not our solution.

1) Millcreek, Pennsylvania schools were in the local Pennsylvania media recently relative to the severe financial hardships that Obama Care is putting on the Millcreek school district, and likely other school districts across the country:

• The school district is already facing a $4.4 million deficit before considering Obama Care.
• If the school district does not change its mode of operation, Obama Care will pile another annual half a million dollars of cost on the district’s budget every year.
• Possibly the only solution is to fire dozens of non-teaching employees such as janitorial and food service personnel and outsource those functions to an outside employment agency to avoid further costs from Obama Care.

Thus, rather than focusing on operating an efficient and effective school system, Millcreek education personnel and board members are devoting a lot of time getting out from under the onerous costs of Obama Care, a non-solution to a real problem. One of the local news reports and the challenges the school district faces can be seen at:

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wont-believe-much-obamacare-raising-costs-pa-school-district/

Remember, Obama and others promised that health care costs would go way down as a result of this legislation. Apparently, health care costs have gone down so much as a result of Obama Care that school districts like Millcreek are looking at a half a million dollar INCREASE in their health care expenses [sarcasm].

2) The Heritage Foundation had a short update piece on its website on March 7, 2014 that illustrates just a small portion of the insanity of Obama Care:

- The first piece of insanity goes back to the time of the original intentions of Obama Care: it was supposed to provide inexpensive health care insurance for EVERY uninsured American. Noble goal, total flop. Heritage reports that the Congressional Budget Office now estimates 31 million Americans will still be left uninsured years after Obama Care is in place. 

Thus, one of the primary reasons for Obama Care, the reason that millions of Americans lost their current insurance, lost access to their preferred doctors, lost access to their preferred hospitals and generally had their lives substantially disrupted, will not come close to be successful.

- But to add insult to injury, we now find out that the Obama Care back room operations and logistics do not even have the processes or intention to track their progress in signing up uninsured Americans for health insurance. Recently, an executive with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Gary Cohen, was asked: How many uninsured Americans are signing up for Obama Care? His reply: “That’s not a data point that we are really collecting in any sort of systematic way.” 

Unbelievable. One of the primary selling points for President Obama was that Obama Care would insure the uninsured. And now the Administration doesn’t even know whether the people signing up had insurance to begin with. The Washington Post reports:

The online application, used by most people to enroll, asks whether people want to apply for coverage but does not give them a place to indicate whether they have insurance now or have had it in the past. As a result, HHS analysts have no way of assessing how many of the online enrollees were uninsured in the past.

How can you know where you are going and how well you are doing against your primary objective if you do not track your progress against your primary goal? You cannot make up this type of incompetence.

3) A Washington examiner article by Michelle Malkin on March 7, 2014 reported on the effort by Senate Democrats to repeal a tax that they purposely included in the Obama Care legislation, the so-called medical device tax. The device tax was put into effect to make the Obama Care business case look good by providing revenue to offset the costs invoked by the legislation.

But the writers of Obama Care had very little knowledge of how business, economics, and reality works. Take profits away from a business, in this case by taxing that business, and they will have less money to hire employees, retain employees, invest in research and development, and have less flexibility to grow their business. It is that simple, but obviously beyond the grasp of Democrats in Congress.

That is why last March, with the support of several key Democrats, the Senate voted to repeal the Obama Care medical device tax that all Democrats had voted to put in the legislation to begin with. They got cold feet when businesses and voters in their home states raised the reality of how devastating the tax would be to their businesses and their employees' lives.

But the vote never got enacted into law. As a result, device makers have cut back on research and development, cut back on hiring, and moved some manufacturing to cheaper overseas facilities. Thus, long term, with less research and development, the ability of these businesses to grow by introducing new products and technologies into the marketplace will be lowered.

Also, according to the medical device manufacturers industry group AdvaMed, the punitive tax has forced companies to lay off or avoid hiring at least 33,000 workers over the past year. This reality proves that recent statements by Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration person responsible for implementing Obama Care, and who declared that Obama Care had no negative impact on jobs, is proven again to be a lie and a deception. This time in the medical device industry.

4) The Malkin Examiner article also reviewed the numerous, and illegal, changes the Obama administration has made to the law without staying within the confines of the Constitution, making all of these changes illegal, void, and probably impeachable offenses under our rules of law:

• Allowing insurers for two extra years to continue selling plans that otherwise would have been banned by the Obama Care legislation. 
• Extending the open enrollment period for 2015 from November 2014 to February 2015, a months longer than originally scheduled. 
• Relaxing eligibility requirements for insurers to qualify for financial help under a three-year program intended to protect insurers' costs of complying with Obama Care mandates.
• Exempting labor unions, universities and other self-insured employers from paying a fee.
• Allowing medium-sized employers an extra year to comply with the Obama Care mandate to offer insurance to all full-time workers and reduced the percentage of workers that large companies are required to cover. 

These latest unilateral regulatory changes by Obama administrative declarations all come on the heels of dozens of administrative delays and rollbacks including:

• In November 2010, the administration began issuing thousands of waivers to unions, cronies, businesses and organizations that offered affordable health insurance or prescription drug coverage with limited benefits outlawed by Obama Care. Many of these exemptions went to the political allies of of the Washington political class.
• In April 2011, Obama signed a law repealing his own onerous $22 billion Obama Care 1099 tax-compliance mandate that would have destroyed small businesses inundated with pointless paperwork.
• In December, 2013 and January, 2014, Obama, Sebelius, and this administration got really busy by delaying premium payment deadlines, delaying high-risk insurance pool cancellations, delaying equal coverage mandates that force companies to drop health benefits rewards for top executives, and delaying onerous "meaningful use" mandates on health providers grappling with Obama Care's disastrous top-down electronic medical records rules.

Malkin makes the following and interesting observation in light of the mess that the administration has made of the legislation’s schedules and requirements: “While Democrats complain about Republican Obama Care repeal efforts, we may be nearing a special inflection point at which the White House will have reneged on more Obama Care regulations than it's actually enforcing!”

She is probably not too far off in her assessment. How bad is a piece of legislation when the makers and supporters of that legislation have had to make so many changes that the current bastardized version of the legislation is unrecognizable from the original legislation? Have we gotten to a point where it would be better to just start over: 

Not because millions of Americans have lost insurance coverage, 

Not because millions of Americans have lost access to their preferred doctors and hospitals, 

Not because the law will add massive amounts of debt to the national debt, 

Not because people’s lives have been endangered by the legislation, 

Not because identity theft will make millions of Americans lives a nightmare,

Not because the legislation has no chance of success because it did not attack the root causes of our high health care costs, 

Not because the law is killing jobs creation and the economy, 

But simply because the legislation has changed more than it has remained unchanged relative to the original legislation? More disasters tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2013 The Unfolding Disaster Of Obama Care, Part 7: The Ten MAJOR Broken Promises of Obama Care

We have spent a lot of time, energy and research investigating and discussing the myriad of problems being caused by the ill fated Obama care legislation. This is a piece of legislation that will never accomplish its goal of reducing health care costs in this country since the writers and advocates of Obama Care never understood the root causes of our escalating health care costs and as a result, never came up with remedies for those root causes.

As a result, millions of Americans are losing insurance coverage from their existing insurance policies that have been cancelled as a result of Obama Care.

Millions of Americans are losing access to their favorite and preferred doctors and hospitals

Millions of Americans are seeing the cost of their needed medications going up significantly.

Millions of Americans are losing their jobs or seeing their work hours reduced as a result of Obama Care.

Doctors are leaving the industry to retire early or to move on to other endeavors as a result of Obama Care, creating an ongoing and worsening doctors shortage in this country.

Economic growth ahs been stymied by the uncertainty and onerous regulations due to Obama Care.

Insurance companies, working closely with the political class, have seen outlandish growth in their profits and stock shares as a result of Obama care.

The list seems endless, the havoc caused by one single, unwieldy and ineffective piece of Washington legislation. Rather than weed through all of the bad news that has been published both in this blog and elsewhere, we have reproduced an excellent summary of the Obama Care disaster below. It comes from Alyene Senger of the Heritage Foundation and it lays out the ten biggest broken promises of Obama Care. The analysis is well documented and referenced and those references can be accessed to gauge credibility at the following link:

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/12/10-broken-obamacare-promises
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Ten Broken Obamacare Promises

By Alyene Senger

Since the passage of Obamacare in 2010, many of the President’s famous promises have been routinely broken. As he so ironically threatened in 2009, “If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out.” To that end, here are 10 promises of Obamacare that have already proved to be broken.

Promise #1: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”

Reality: Millions of Americans have lost and will lose their coverage due to Obamacare.

Obamacare has significantly disrupted the market for those who buy coverage on their own by imposing new coverage and benefit mandates, causing a reported 4.7 million health insurance cancellations of an existing policy in 32 states.

For those with employer-sponsored insurance in the group market, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance by 2018.

Moreover, the Administration itself has admitted that employers would not keep their existing health plans. Federal regulations written in 2010 estimated that 51 percent of small and large employers would lose their “grandfathered status” by 2013—meaning a majority of employers would not keep their existing health plans.

Promise #2: “That means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.”

Reality: Many Americans might not be able to keep their current doctor without paying extra.

Many plans offered on Obamacare’s exchanges have very limited provider networks, decreasing the chances consumers will be able to keep their current doctor without paying more money. Furthermore, many Americans who purchase coverage on their own have had their existing health plans changed or canceled due to Obamacare, resulting in some people being unable to keep their current doctors without paying additional money to do so.

Due to the significant payment reductions included in Obamacare, seniors with Medicare Advantage plans may be forced to find new doctors. The largest provider of these plans, UnitedHealth, has recently reduced its provider networks in several states.

Promise #3: “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.”

Reality: Premiums for people purchasing coverage in the individual market have significantly increased in a majority of states. 

A Heritage analysis shows that, on average, consumers in 42 states will see their premiums in the exchanges increase, many by over 100 percent.

For people with employer-sponsored coverage, costs also continue to increase. For families, premiums from 2009 to 2013 have increased by an average of $2,976.

Promise #4: “For the 85 and 90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, this thing’s already happened. And their only impact is that their insurance is stronger, better and more secure than it was before. Full stop. That’s it. They don’t have to worry about anything else.”

Reality: Obamacare imposes certain new benefit mandates on those with employer-sponsored coverage—a majority of Americans. 

These mandates increase the cost of coverage. In fact, federal regulations written in 2010 assumed “that the increases in insurance benefits will be directly passed on to the consumer in the form of higher premiums. These assumptions bias the estimates of premium changes upward.”

But higher premiums not only cost people more money; they have other impacts on coverage as well. For instance, as a response to the direct cost increases associated with Obamacare, UPS dropped coverage for spouses of employees if they are offered coverage through their own employers.

Promise #5: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”

Reality: Obamacare contains 18 separate tax hikes, fees, and penalties, many of which heavily impact the middle class. 

Altogether, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate over $770 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. Among the taxes that will hit the middle class are the individual mandate tax, the medical device tax, and new penalties and limits on health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts.

Promise #6: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.”

Reality: Obamacare’s new spending is unsustainable.

Obamacare was passed into law relying on a wide variety of unrealistic budget projections. A more realistic assessment reveals that it will be a multi-trillion-dollar budget buster. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated the cost of Obamacare over the long term if certain cost-containment measures were overridden. Under that alternative scenario, which assumes that “historical trends and policy preferences continue,” the GAO found that Obamacare would increase the primary deficit by 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Senator Jeff Sessions (R–AL) and the Senate Budget Committee staff, who commissioned the GAO report, translated the 75-year percentage estimate into today’s dollar amount, which would be $6.2 trillion over the next 75 years.

Promise #7: “Whatever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce costs for families, businesses, and government, those elements are in this bill.”

Reality: Health spending is still rising and is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.8 percent from 2012 to 2022.

While growth in health spending has been slower recently compared to the past, that is largely due to the sluggish economic recovery. Indeed, Obamacare’s new entitlements will help drive greater health spending in 2014 and beyond.

Promise #8: “I will protect Medicare.”

Reality: Obamacare cuts Medicare spending.

Obamacare makes unprecedented and unrealistic payment reductions to Medicare providers and Medicare Advantage plans in order to finance the new spending in the law. The cuts amount to over $700 billion from 2013 to 2022. If Congress allows these draconian reductions to take place, it will significantly impact seniors’ ability to access care.

Promise #9: “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American.”

Reality: Millions of Americans will remain uninsured.

Despite spending nearly $1.8 trillion in new spending from 2014 to 2023, the law falls far short of universal coverage. Indeed, Obamacare is projected by the CBO to leave 31 million uninsured after a decade of full implementation.

Promise #10: “So this law means more choice, more competition, lower costs for millions of Americans.”

Reality: Obamacare has not increased insurer competition or consumer choice. 

In the vast majority of states, the number of insurers competing in the state’s exchange is actually less than the number of carriers that previously sold individual market policies in the state. And at the local level, for 35 percent of the nation’s counties, exchange enrollees will have a choice of plans from only two insurers—a duopoly. In 17 percent of counties, consumers will have no choice—a monopoly—as only one carrier is offering coverage in the exchange.

—Alyene Senger is a Research Associate in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

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And these are not the only ten bad things to come out of Obama Care. We have seen economic growth reduced, people lose jobs and work hours, identity thieves get an easy target for their craft, politicians illegally exempt themselves and their staffs from many of the more onerous provisions of the law, etc. 

And perhaps worse of all, the underlying root causes of our escalating health Care costs are not addressed at all or not seriously addressed:

• Americans are overweight.
• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• Americans smoke too much.
• There is serious need for medical industry tort reform.
• There is a serious need to break down the legal barriers that restrict cross state line insurance company competition.
• Current government health care programs lose over $100 billion a year to waste and criminal fraud, lost wealth that could do so much for those in need in this country.
• There is no understanding of how medical dollars flow in this country’s health care industry, an ignorance that prevents a comprehensive analysis of why costs are so high.
• There is no serious plan to address the growing expense and prevalence of aging diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s that will financially break our health care system as the country ages.

The sad part of these root causes is that many of them are the result of faulty government programs that subsidize tobacco farmers, that subsidize the growing of corn that ends up as cheap sweeteners throughout our food chain, that restrict competition, that refuse to reform our tort laws, etc.

This is easily the worst piece of legislation to come out of Washington…ever. 

And as the President threatened four years ago, we have called him out for misrepresentation.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w