We-Have-to-Pass-It-To-Find-Out-What’s-In-It Fact of the Day
This is Robert Graboyes writing at The Health Care Blog:
[T]he health insurance tax (HIT) …. [is] ostensibly a tax on insurers, [but] its real effect will be hundreds of billions of dollars of taxation on people who purchase coverage in the fully-insured market – mostly small business employers and employees and the self-employed. These are the people who usually generate around two-thirds of America’s new jobs.
In contrast, the HIT bypasses those who have coverage through self-insured plans – mostly big business, labor unions, and governments… [T]he HIT puts an anchor around the neck of small business while leaving larger organizations free to swim unburdened. And the anchor is a heavy one.
Over the first decade, the HIT will hit the fully-insured market with an estimated $87.4 billion tab, but that figure greatly understates the long-run financial impact…. The second-decade cost is difficult to forecast, but may exceed $200 billion or even $300 billion.
It is amazing how perverse the incentives are sometimes. Politicians decided to gouge insurers without realizing the ultimate recipient of the higher cost is small employers. Firms with fewer than 51 workers will not be fined if they do not offer health coverage. This makes them more apt to drop coverage entirely and send their workers to the exchange.
This is the first thing I have seen on this. Very interesting. In a bad sort of way.
Wait a minute. I thought Obama promised my family’s health insurance premiums would be $2,500 lower after health reform.
Insidious.
No wonder they can’t explain the “moral imperative” behind the bill. It’s absurd that the Democrats claim to be fighting against big corporations.