Posted on 11/15/2012 6:54:16 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The good news for Democrats is that Obamacare will now be implemented. But the bad news for Democrats is also that Obamacare will now be implemented.
President Obama's re-election ensures that his signature health care law will not be repealed before its major provisions go into effect. But that also means, to borrow a phrase from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Americans will begin to find out what's in the law.
Starting Jan. 1, several key provisions of the health care law will kick in. Americans will only be allowed to contribute $2,500 to flexible spending accounts, which allow participants to pay for medical expenses on a pretax basis. Also, from then on, the accounts can only be used to pay for drugs with a prescription, excluding over-the-counter drugs, which still may be legitimate medical expenses and were previously allowed.
The new year will also ring in a wave of new tax increases. One is the Medicare tax hike on individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than $250,000. Another is the 3.8 percent tax on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents. On top of that, there will be a 2.3 percent tax increase on medical devices. These will be on top of any tax hike that comes out of current end-of-the-year negotiations between Republicans and Democrats to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
Most of the major provisions of the health care law go into effect in 2014. During that year, individuals will be forced to purchase government-approved insurance policies or pay a tax. The tax will hit 6 million uninsured Americans, most of them middle-class, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Employers who have at least 50 workers could have to pay a $2,000-per-employee fine for not providing health insurance. As Zane Tankel, who owns 40 Applebee's locations in the New York area, recently explained on Fox Business, this provision will force him to hold off on expanding or hiring, and even to re-evaluate his current workforce. Business owners throughout the nation have echoed his thinking.
In addition, 2014 will usher in the expansion of Medicaid and the creation of new exchanges. On these exchanges, eligible individuals will receive government subsidies to purchase government-designed insurance plans administered by private companies. These two components are projected to cost $1.7 trillion over a decade.
Governors, right now, are trying to decide whether to participate in the expansion of Medicaid, a program that is already crushing state budgets, and to implement the exchanges themselves or back out and let the federal government set up the exchanges for them.
The establishment of an exchange involves a massive data compilation process in which the federal government will have to figure out Americans' income levels to determine their eligibility to receive benefits. The exchanges are supposed to be up by the fall of 2013 so that individuals can begin enrolling in them.
Each state faces its own challenges in setting up the exchanges. In Washington, D.C., officials determined that the uninsured population was too small for the exchange to function. So they have taken the step of conscripting individuals and businesses with between two and 50 employees to purchase health insurance through the exchange, making it the sole marketplace in D.C. for plans that aren't "grandfathered in."
During a meeting with The Washington Examiner, Mohammad Akhter, chairman of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority Executive Board, noted the difficulty of setting up an exchange under the federal time constraints.
With a number of Republican governors deciding that letting the Obama administration set up their state-based exchanges is the lesser of bad options, the federal government will be facing a number of logistical challenges to getting them up and running.
If it goes badly, this could spell trouble for Democrats up for re-election in 2014. But who's ever heard of a massive government database and software development program going badly?
Philip Klein (pklein@washingtonexaminer.com) is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner.
It spells trouble for America, not for democrats. They will be just fine after they instruct the media on how to blame it on Bush.
Right.
Because the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare spelled such trouble for the Dems in 2012. :)
There is a reason Reid, Pelosi and Obama are smiling in every picture. :)
Somehow:
Bush’s fault!
RE: Because the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare spelled such trouble for the Dems in 2012. :)
If you read the article, his reasons are quite different from yours — IT IS BECAUSE OBAMACARE HAS NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED.
Read the first paragraph and then read his reasons. Then argue against his reasons.
This is crap.
There is one, single thing that I learned from the last election: the American electorate is TOO DAMNED STUPID to make a accurate correlation between cause and effect.
Period. End of story.
They elected Obama a second time. The first time could be attributed in some way to a combination of naiveté, ignorance, good intentions, stupidity, etc.
The second time this cheesedick was elected can only be attributed to one thing: Stupidity. Stupidity on a massive and irrevocable scale.
And to think that in four years, when things are going to be much worse (and much more directly attributable to the actions of liberals) that there is going to be some kind of backlash against the very people who destroyed things, well...that is wishful thinking. I don’t see it happening at all.
That said, the timeline to failure of the American socialist experiment is unclear at this point. Could it be 2014? Who knows? It will, however, fail. You can bank on that.
Not when you rig the vote. But don’t worry, they’ll let a few Republicans win to make it look believable.
Oh, you are certainly correct. This “socialist experiment” will fail, the way all socialist endeavors do.
The problem is, it is going to take all of us down with it.
And I have come to believe that will not be by accident, but will be by design.
??? Is this guy serious? 2012 told us all about how elections will be conducted from here on out.
Haven’t you heard? They steal elections! What should they care if they’re in trouble?
The fight should begin now. The GOP should be funding an aggressive ad campaign that clearly explains how Obamacare is destructive to good health care and the economy. This campaign should only focus on aspects of the law that inevitably will lead to very apparent problems by Election Day 2014. This way the voters will see at that time that the GOP was and is correct on the issue. In other words, preemptive action right now so that later we can honestly say “I told you so.”
At least until it all collapses.
The American voter no longer is able to wipe himself.
There are no longer consequences for actions in the ballot box.
The fight should begin now. The GOP should be funding an aggressive ad campaign that clearly explains how Obamacare is destructive to good health care and the economy.”
And it will be in all the media? HAW HAW HAW.........
The backlash will be against those who understand and hold fast to reality and refuse to be brainwashed into embracing the government model of deception and destruction.
The corrupt aren't interested in seeing the error of their ways. They now have the green light to use the government god they fashioned to persecute those who won't fall down and worship.
I am curious about the absentee ballots and other vote-by-mail schemes. Wouldn't states such as OR and WA be able to create a database of every voter's voting record?
He appointed Roberts who let the law stand.
Thus. BUSH’S FAULT!
All the desperate people will be pounded into government submission - and they’ll completely lose the incentive and belief that they could ever make it on their own without some rat politician redistributing money for them.
Forget that for many people it’s their own money being redistributed - through the filter of SEIU and they only get a fraction back. Quite the hat trick by the marxists to dumb people down this much. A lion in the jungle knows better.
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