HMOs pass on new tax to public

The Washington Times ^ | 1-26-05 | Robert Redding Jr.and Marguerite Higgins

[JZelle]

Health maintenance organizations in Maryland have begun passing onto their customers a 2 percent tax on their premiums, just two weeks after the Democrat-controlled General Assembly enacted the HMO tax. Earlier this month, Democratic lawmakers overrode Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of a medical malpractice insurance reform bill that contained the tax, despite his warning that HMOs would pass the tax on to "those who can least afford to pay it." One of the state's largest medical services providers — Aetna Inc. of Hartford, Conn. — will increase its premium rates and pass the full 2 percent tax onto its fully insured HMO customers in Maryland, spokesman Walter Cherniak told The Washington Times yesterday.

[JZelle]

So typical of Maryland. Gotta problem? Tax it!!

[coconutt2000]

You know they've got the problems whipped when they start taxing taxes.

[JustAnAmerican]

Just as Erlich said they would. The idiotic Politicians that voted to overturn his veto of the bill that caused this will have a lot of explaining to do come 2006.

[kingu]

Of course, they'll just say how poor of a choice was made by the insurance company and it wasn't intended for that tax to be passed on. In the mean time, discussions will start about raising that tax because, well, once a tax comes in, it can only go up.

[Spok]

"HMOs pass on new tax to public"

There's never been a tax on goods or services that wasn't.

[Codeflier]

The left will never understand. People always pay all taxes. Not companies.

[taxcontrol]

"The revenue from the HMO tax — about $64 million over three years — will be used to subsidize doctors' malpractice insurance premiums, which have risen nearly 70 percent in the past two years. "


Oh the irony.

[freddiedavis]

surprise, surprise...corporations don't pay taxes...they just pass it along to the consumer...economics 101

[Ranxerox]

Just as Erlich said they would. The idiotic Politicians that voted to overturn his veto of the bill that caused this will have a lot of explaining to do come 2006.

Sadly, in Maryland that isn't the case.

[Publius6961]

HMOs pass on new tax to public

Hmmmm.
Some brainiac reporter actually believes that any new tax is not passed on to the ultimate buyers of a product or service.

My brain is going to explode... sooner or later.

[Viking2002]

The idiotic Politicians that voted to overturn his veto of the bill that caused this will have a lot of explaining to do come 2006.

No, they won't. The I-95 limo libs will just make sure that everyone east of Annapolis and west of Damascus bends over and takes four more years of it. When you have a built-in constituency of inner-city welfare parasites, anthills of illegal immigrants, and Berkeleyite-wannabes, you can do whatever your little ol' Socialist heart desires. Virginians, blow the bridges and mine the Potomac.

[kevkrom]

The I-95 limo libs

Don't forget the I-270 libs (Montgomery County) either.

[FormerACLUmember]

Be aware of precisely what this is... a lawyer tax. 60% of liability insurance premiums go for the lawyer industry (court costs, plus the defense lawyers cost as much, if not more than, the payouts to the plintiff shysters).

[Viking2002]

Yup - that pretty much covers everything from Damascus to Jenifer Street.

[kevkrom]

surprise, surprise...corporations don't pay taxes...they just pass it along to the consumer...economics 101

You'd be surprised at how many uninformed FReepers on tax reform threads would disagree with you...

[JZelle]

These premiums will only go up every year. Then what? The article stated the Doctor's organizations supported the override. This really doesn't address the issue other than taking the path of least resistance and screwing over the taxpayer.

[rllngrk33]

Virginians, blow the bridges and mine the Potomac.

Please wait until I get across the river. It's getting close to the time I'll have to leave the peoples republic of maryland.

[Viking2002]

Sad part is, my family home is in Cumberland. I consider myself behind enemy lines when I go to visit.

[John Lenin]

Just like the morons can't figure out that raising the minimum wage causes job loses for the most vulnerable people in the job market and raises prices so high that people just stop buying whatever it is that low wage earners are producing. There is so much evidence of the destruction of leftist policies that I'm convinced even the leftists know they are destroying things and that's exactly what their plan is in the first place.