Here are a few items of fallout from the health care reform bill just signed into law:
Many companies are taking big write-downs on earnings as a result of having to take charges against subsidiaries that subsidized retiree drug costs. They got a tax break for doing this but the bill takes the tax break away. Their earnings take a big hit:
And then, from Cato
- Anyone expecting their insurance premiums to go down is going to be sorely disappointed. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that, despite passage of this bill, insurance premiums will double in the next few years. Worse, for the millions of Americans who get their insurance through the individual market, rather than from an employer, this bill will raise premiums by 10-13 percent more.
- It is predicted that the bill will eventually result in some 32 million more Americans becoming insured (still leaving some 21 million uninsured). But that wouldn’t be achieved until at least 2019. For most people who are uninsured today, they will still be uninsured tomorrow.
- Parents will be able to keep their children on their family insurance plan until those children reach age 26. Of course, that will not be free. Parents who do so can expect to pay higher premiums.
- Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. A ban on pre-existing condition restrictions for adults doesn’t start until 2014.
- Next year, some small businesses will be eligible for tax credits to offset some of the costs of providing insurance for their employees. Starting in 2012, Medicare payroll taxes will increase by 0.9 percent on individuals earning more than $200,000 per year. There will also be a new 3.8 percent tax imposed on investment income and capital gains. More than a dozen other new or increased taxes will also be coming on board.
- The biggest changes start in 2014. For example, that’s when the individual and employer mandates start. Every individual will have to have a government-approved health insurance plan or pay a penalty equal to one percent of his or her income.
- The last component of the bill to kick in is the tax on so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans. Beginning in 2018, insurance plans with a value of $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 will be subject to a 40 percent excise tax.
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My little heart goes out to these corporations who took a big hit. They’ve been raping their labor for years to feed the greed of their Corporate Communist Masters.
The 45,000 Americans who die every year from lack of insurance recognize the failure of the capitalist system. The 1.5 million homeless children recognize the failure of this capitalist system and there are better ways to live than pandering to the fear based in greed.
The Health Care Insurance Reform is a good start but single payor is required to compete in this capitalist system that’s forgotten what America is all about.
Whine and scream about the hit on your bottom line but Americans know that not one of your corporate officers is worth 3000% more than the labor you vapirically feed from.
Learn to treat your labor right or the Unions will be back big time.
Kevin, you really need to rethink your position. Your last comment on unions doesn’t stand up against the facts. Look at GM and Chrysler. This is what happens when unions strongarm corporations. They should both be out of business and the union members going down the road to the unemployment office. The only reason they’re not is the robbery of the taxpayer to prop them up.
We haven’t had true capitalism in this country for a very long time. Government meddling has put us where we are today through regulations,taxation,subsidies and recently, through bailouts. Do a bit of reading. Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is a good one. Also, Samuel Pettengill’s Jefferson, The Forgotten Man (1938). The blaming of capitalism has become a progressive talking point. But that’s all it is, it’s a myth. To paraphrase Mr. Pettengill’s writing, the government blaming capitalism is like the police stealing a man’s clothes then arresting him for indecent exposure.
People don’t die in this country because they “lack insurance coverage” ….they die because we lack a sane comprehensive health care system. The idea that people are dying because they “lack insurance” is something the insurance companies themselves have used to convince us that THAT is the problem and of course THEY have the answers! FOR-PROFIT health insurance! Oh yeah…that’s worked well so far! FOR THEM! Let’s STOP parroting back the propaganda they peddle shall we?
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Kevin,
I see these things posted frequently. 45,000 people die every year because they lack health insurance.
As evidence to support your argument, I would like to see the names of 27,347 people who died in 2008 because they did not have health insurance. I don’t need the names of all 45,000, just 27,347 will do. Also, only for 2008. I’m sure you have the list for each year commencing in 1776, but only the year 2008 will suffice.
In case you can’t tell, I believe you are lying. Just that simple; you’re lying.
Prove me wrong, post the short list.
Thanks in advance. I have asked the WH and my democrat senators bu they can’t provide even one name. They tell me this is all actuarial data. Again, I think they are simply lying.
Good point, Darrell. We’re all waiting.
I would be willing to bet that premiums aren’t going to double! But, we will have to wait and see.