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Health insurance tax ‘scares the daylights’ out of some small-business owners
Washington Post ^ | 05/13/2013 | J.D. Harrison

Posted on 05/13/2013 1:45:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Many small-business owners worry that a new tax on insurance providers in the health-care law will mean higher premiums for them, undermining the law’s capacity to lower their health-care costs.

Starting next year, the federal government will charge a new fee on health insurance firms based on the plans they sell to individuals and companies, known as the fully insured market. Meanwhile, the provision exempts health-insurance plans that are set up and operated by businesses themselves (the self-insured market).

Revenue from the tax will help pay for the health-care overhaul, which is expected to extend coverage to millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans.

However, because most large corporations self-insure their workforce, experts warn that insurance companies will pass the costs directly to small businesses. The vast majority purchase coverage in the fully insured market.

“Insurers have confirmed back to me that the tax will be passed down to consumers, and the direct impact will be staggering,” Ryan Thorn, owner of a small insurance planning firm near Salt Lake City, told lawmakers during a congressional hearing Thursday. “It disproportionately hits individuals and small-business owners, the people who have been hurt most by these challenging times.”

During his testimony, Thorn read letters from his small-business clients about the likely impact of the new health insurance tax. One wrote that the tax “scares the daylights out of us,” while another warned that it would likely “hasten the decision to move away from providing group coverage for our employees.”

The Department of Health and Human Services reports that among private businesses that offer health insurance, three of every four firms with between 100 and 500 employees purchase coverage in the fully insured market. The number jumped to 87 percent for firms with fewer than 100 workers.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; 0caresmallbusiness; democrats; govtabuse; obama; obamacare; pelosi; smallbusiness; socialisthealthcare; tax
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1 posted on 05/13/2013 1:45:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Back before Roberts managed to get ObamaKKKare defined as a 'tax' I think the leftwingtards intended to take the fees raised on insurance policies (as descibed in your response) and transfer them over directly to insurance funds to purchase insurance for the uninsured.

That neatly bypassed the Constitution which requires that taxes go into the Treasury and that no appropriation be made except that it originate in the House.

Without the 'fee' concept being left intact, there's no way ObamaKKKare can operate as planned ~ that 'tax' on insurance will go to the Treasury and it'll be a cold day in hades before a Republican House appropriates a dime of it to buy insurance.

2 posted on 05/13/2013 1:51:53 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, ObamaCare doesn’t scare us so much as it forces us to try to grow revenues without hiring and without using full-time employees. And it is hardly the only government intrusion in recent years that compels us to take such a path.


3 posted on 05/13/2013 1:52:00 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: SeekAndFind

So we’ll manage to have high inflation AND high unemployment while running all printing presses full steam flat out. The Trifecta.


4 posted on 05/13/2013 1:58:56 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Low information types waking up?

TT


5 posted on 05/13/2013 2:05:17 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: SeekAndFind
I am so surprised. (/sarcasm).

Just wait. We are just over a half a year away when Obamacare kicks in.

Glad I'm still healthy, because its going to be the biggest cluster-frig this country has seen since the "New Deal" and the "Great Society" that two liberals pushed on us.

I'm going to load up on popcorn and rum and make a special point of laughing at the socialists who thought this to be a good deal. I may even go to a hospital or two and ask them if they voted for Obamacare while on their death beds and not getting appropriate treatment. Yes, I'm that callous. Sue me. I want those idiots who have destroyed the best health care system in the world know that they are living in pain due their stupid votes.

By mid year 2014, there will be countless complaints about costs, lines, reduced access to doctors, reduced Medical Assistant/Nurse care. Those in the care-giving industry will be going crazy to keep up with the paperwork, and many will just leave/retire.

HHS and the IRS will dictate what you need in end days and before according to the "tax". Lawsuits will be everywhere, while you don't get the operation you need.

This is the worst over-reach of the Fedgov I have seen in my 63 years. Hope I drink myself to death. Bottoms up...haha!

6 posted on 05/13/2013 2:09:02 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (An Oath is Forever)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is in WaPo?


7 posted on 05/13/2013 2:13:27 PM PDT by austinaero
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To: SeekAndFind

“Revenue from the tax will help pay for the health-care overhaul, which is expected to extend coverage to millions of uninsured or under insured Americans. “

This is a full on welfare program that will ultimately break the backs of taxpaying citizens and businesses.


8 posted on 05/13/2013 2:16:19 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obamacare is such an overall disaster. Republicans should constantly be hammering away at this, educating the public as to the excessive costs and reduced care.


9 posted on 05/13/2013 2:23:40 PM PDT by From The Deer Stand
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To: SeekAndFind

Just got my company renewal Going up 19% on the July 1, 2013 Renewal. Not sure how we are going to come up with an additional $228,000 accept off of the backs of the employees. Wait until they see the sticker shock. We have absorbed the increases since 2008 but can’t on this one. This is a pre obamacare renewal. Next year will be worst.


10 posted on 05/13/2013 2:24:33 PM PDT by ncfool (Obama's aMeriKa 2012 can we make it until 2016?)
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To: From The Deer Stand

The good news is that Obamacare will be in “full bloom” just in time for the 2014 midterms....


11 posted on 05/13/2013 2:25:38 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: SeekAndFind
extend coverage to millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans.

How does the existing doctor base treat millions of new patients? The unemployed have unlimited time on their hands and will go to the doctor for every sniffle just for the attention. In the waiting room they will greatly out-compete the sorry wage slaves that will pay for all this.

12 posted on 05/13/2013 2:31:59 PM PDT by Reeses
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To: Buckeye McFrog

And so many businesses closing their doors and laying off people that it will make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park.


13 posted on 05/13/2013 2:38:17 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: SeekAndFind

Why did no one but the liberals think of this? They are going to control health insurance costs by paying for health insurance with a tax on health insurance. I should use the same model at home and pay for lavish vacations that I can’t afford by writing myself checks to cover those vacations.


14 posted on 05/13/2013 2:43:43 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Reeses
My eye-ear-nose-thorat guy told me the regulations are dreadful. It takes 3 more people in his office to push the papers and the reimbursements for the welfare ones doesn’t even begin to cover his costs.

I am so sad for him, he is a skilled, caring physician.

15 posted on 05/13/2013 2:46:49 PM PDT by Battle Axe (Repent, for the coming of the Lord is nigh.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
So we’ll manage to have high inflation AND high unemployment while running all printing presses full steam flat out.

At least the Weimar Republic had full employment! We won't be nearly so lucky.
16 posted on 05/13/2013 4:39:19 PM PDT by yorkiemom
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To: ncfool
Just got my company renewal Going up 19% on the July 1, 2013 Renewal. Not sure how we are going to come up with an additional $228,000 accept off of the backs of the employees. Wait until they see the sticker shock. We have absorbed the increases since 2008 but can’t on this one. This is a pre obamacare renewal. Next year will be worst.

Sad. And you'll have to increase product costs as well, I imagine.
17 posted on 05/13/2013 4:41:46 PM PDT by yorkiemom
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To: SeekAndFind

from the article:

...another [small business owner] warned that it would likely “hasten the decision to move away from providing group coverage for our employees.”


That’s the point: 0bamacare is a step on the road to the goal — single-payer health care. 0bolshevik said so himself in a speech to SEIU, I think it was, years ago. Hannity played the speech over and over again back in 2008.


18 posted on 05/13/2013 4:47:14 PM PDT by Peet (Come back with a warrant.)
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To: yorkiemom

No product but selling labor that gets paid full benefits and now there will be no part time employees. My competitors pay cash under the table. I do things honestly and ethically.


19 posted on 05/13/2013 5:06:21 PM PDT by ncfool (Obama's aMeriKa 2012 can we make it until 2016?)
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To: SeekAndFind
Wait until the idiots that cheered the "deeming" of this rube goldberg discover that insurance companies will be able to raid your bank account. Page 59 of PPACA, lines 21-24 gives direct access to your banks accounts to compel you to pay any out-of-pocket or premium costs electronically without your previous consent.

"Hey, who moved my chees?"

20 posted on 05/13/2013 5:13:42 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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