WASHINGTON, DC, March 3, 2013 - You are going to pay more, much more for healthcare thanks to the new ObamaCare soon to roll out across America.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its proposal Friday to earn billions of dollars through annual fees on health insurers as part of the Affordable Care Act.
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Industry groups are quite upset, arguing that the fees will be passed along to consumers.
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading trade group for the insurance industry, blasted the fees as a tax that would exceed $100 billion in the next decade and hit average families still struggling to rebound from the economic recession. And if the insurers don’t pay on time they are going to face penalties of $10,000, plus $1,000 for every day they miss deadline.
“This is a new $100 billion tax on health insurance,” AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach said in an interview Friday. “Taxing health insurance is only going to make it more expensive.
The fees, to be collected from most insurers, would register $8 billion next year and rise every year afterward, breaking $14 billion in 2018, according to the IRS. The amount of the fees would depend on an insurer’s net premiums.
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The group estimates that an average family’s health insurance would rise by more than $300 next year, with that total surpassing $500 in subsequent years.
What is that going to buy you, the healthcare consumer, taxpayer? What are you going to get in return?
In January 2010, before the Affordable Care Act became law, the Congressional Budget Office projected that, in 2016, premiums for bronze plans would, on average, cost “between $12,000 and $12,500 for family policies.” That estimate has not been updated since.
About how much are families paying now?
Most recently, the average annual premium for employer-sponsored coverage for a family of four reached $15,745 in 2012 — up 4 percent from 2011 — according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. On average, workers paid $4,316 toward the cost of their coverage, while employers covered the remainder.
If you think you’re getting a good return on your health care dollars just wait for another year.
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Dr Peter Lind practices metabolic and neurologic chiropractic in his wellness clinic in Salem, Oregon. USA. He is the author of 3 books on health, one novel, and hundreds of wellness articles. His clinical specialty is in physical, nutritional, and emotional stress.
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