Affordable for Whom?

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Remember who said that and when? That’s right President Obama said this about his Health Care Proposal” as he campaigned in September 2008.

Now let’s look at the Senate Health Care Bill, known as the Patient Protection and Affordability Act.

The Senate Health Care Reform Bill includes an individual mandate that forces any American who does not have a qualified health plan to pay an annual tax penalty of $750 per adult family member and $375 per child, with a maximum penalty of $2,250 per family. This kicks in any time you go without insurance for more than 30 days. Zappo. Report it on your income tax or else. (Wait! 50% of Americans don't file tax returns? How is that going to work? Guess what, I can't find it in the bill. Can you say loophole?)

These penalties are indexed for inflation, which means they are likely to increase nearly every year. And believe me, inflation is going to sky-rocket when this takes effect.

These taxes are fixed amounts based on family size, not income. A family of at least two adults and two children is actually worse off if they make less than $99,350 a year. The only affordability is a “hardship exemption” if the lowest available premium for a bare-bones plan is more than 8 percent of your income. But that saves you money only if your income is less than $28,125 a year. I’m there, whew!

The employer mandate is especially punitive on poor families. Firms that hire an employee from a low-income family who qualify for an insurance subsidy are charged a tax penalty of $3,000. I can’t figure that one out. It’s a job killing mandate.

So a company could save $3,000 by hiring, say, someone with a working spouse or a teenager with working parents, rather than a single mother with three children.

However, companies only have to pay $750 an employee instead of $3,000 if one quarter of employees are low-income. Think about that. This creates a situation where, if a company has a lot of low-income workers, they can actually save money by dropping their health plan and pay the penalty. Instead they just dump all their employees into the federal exchange. And now the low-income family pays a fine for not getting individual coverage. Well, not unless they are below $28,125 and then you get the bare-bone coverage. Think bare-bone coverage includes mammograms?

Small businesses employ 70% of today’s work force. Without small business operating and competing in a strong and healthy economy, unemployment is going to continue to grow. No worries. The Senate is here to help small business.

The bill tries to address this problem by including a “small business tax credit” to minimize the impact of the above mentioned job killing mandates and regulation-caused rises in private health insurance premiums. But the tax credit only lasts two years and largely excludes small business owners, small businesses with higher than average payrolls, and firms with 25 or more workers. After all exclusions, essentially the only eligible firms are those firms with 10 or fewer workers as well as those with low-income workers—the least likely to offer coverage even with a significant price reduction. So where is the credit and where is the coverage?

The bill would increase taxes on all health insurance plans, as well as on brand-name drugs and biologics, and on medical devices. These tax increases would affect anyone who buys these goods.

The bill would allow State insurance exchanges to charge assessments or user fees to participating health insurers, or to otherwise generate funding, to support its operations. That means insurers would pass these “assessments or user fees” through to consumers. Hum? Higher premiums? This would affect anyone who buys health insurance and remember under this plan you must buy insurance or pay the penalty. So you are damned if you do or damn if you don’t.

You got to love it. Oh, there is more, much more. But you can’t handle too much more truth.

Come on. Call your Senators NOW. Email your Senators NOW. The vote for debate is tomorrow night. And let the record show when they vote to discuss a bill, 97% of the time it goes through to the end. Stop the train wreck. We can't afford this kind of protection.

To contact your Senators click HERE . Tell them the debate is over. VOTE NO.