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5 Obamacare Promises to
Remember
by Nina Owcharenko
Remember
when former Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) told the American people that “we have to
pass the
[health care] bill so that you can find out what is in it”?
Well,
it’s been over two years
since the enactment of Obamacare, and we’ve found out a lot. Not only
are the
provisions currently in place falling short; the promises made about
the health
care law look to be broken. Here are five of them.
1.
The law won’t raise taxes on
families making less than $250,000 a year.
Obamacare
includes over 18 new
taxes (including the individual mandate) that will hit the middle
class. These
taxes come in all forms: on insurers, prescription drug manufacturers,
medical
device makers, and even tanning salons. Of course, the Administration
would be
quick to point out that none of these taxes is on individuals. But
common sense
tells us that these taxes will be passed on to the consumer.
As
a result of the Supreme Court
decision, the individual mandate is now a tax and one that the
Administration
can’t run away from. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office
shows
that nearly 70 percent of the individual mandate will be paid for by
those
earning less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
By
the way, on the heels of
Taxmageddon are several Obamacare tax hikes that go into effect in
January
2013.
2.
If you like your health plan,
you can keep it.
Facing
great uncertainty as a
result of the struggling economy and the health care law, would anyone
be
surprised if more employers decide to drop coverage and pay the penalty
than
originally predicted? It makes sense for an employer to get out a
calculator
and set aside a lump of money to pay the government each year rather
than worry
about aligning their plans with still unknown and likely ever-changing
government mandates.
And
don’t think this broken promise
just affects those with employer coverage—seniors will be hit, too. The
chief
Medicare actuary projects that enrollment in the ever-popular Medicare
Advantage options will decline by 50 percent as Obamacare cuts go into
place.
3.
It will protect Medicare.
After
two-and-a-half years, the
word is finally out: Obamacare cuts over $700 billion out of
Medicare—not to
shore up the long-term viability of the Medicare program but to pay for
the
rest of Obamacare. It is worth noting that Heritage documented these
cuts back
in 2010 when the bill was enacted. Good to see that this fact has
bubbled its
way into the mainstream.
4.
It will cut premiums by $2,500.
Granted,
the health care law is not
fully in effect, but the trends don’t look good. According to the
annual
Employer Health Benefits survey, average annual premiums for
employer-based
health care coverage have increased. From 2011 to 2012, single coverage
rose 3
percent, and family coverage rose by 4 percent.
Here
again, common sense tells us
that the promise of “free” preventive coverage and new mandates on
employers
and insurers will make premiums go up, not down.
5.
It will bend the cost curve down
and reduce the deficit.
Only
in Washington do you spend
over a trillion dollars to “save” money and still leave 30 million
people
without health insurance. The truth is that Obamacare included a number
of
budget tricks to paint a false deficit picture.
There’s
a Willie Nelson song that
says, “A broken promise always means someone will surely cry.… I know
who that
someone is bound to be.” Under Obamacare, it is clear that it’s the
American
people.
Source:
blog.heritage.org
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