Obamacare costing taxpayers twice as much as originally claimed
When he was selling the Affordable Care Act during his first term, President Obama claimed that the government's near-complete takeover of the nation's healthcare industry would be, well, affordable.
Everyone from the president on down in his administration and in the Democratic leadership insisted that the naysayers and critics were wrong, that Obamacare would not tank the nation by becoming another parasitic entitlement drain on the treasury.
Well, that was 2010. In 2013, fewer than three years later and as more and more provisions of this monstrosity of a law take effect, Americans are beginning to feel the full effect of exactly what then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meant when she said of Obamacare, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."
Yes, healthcare is about to get a lot more expensive
Take the cost of Obamacare. When he was stumping for it, the president promised Americans that, not only could the nation pay for it, but that it would cost around $900 billion over the next decade.
As congressional and independent studies are now confirming; however, Obama's cost claims were grossly understated.
"President Obama promised a joint session of Congress in 2009 to spend $900 billion over ten years on his health care law: 'Now, add it all up, and the plan that I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.' Adding up all the different spending provisions in the health care law; however, (including closing the Medicare 'doughnut hole,' implementation costs, and other spending) total gross spending over the FY 2010-19 period is about $1.4 trillion, based on CBO estimates," explains the Senate Budget Committee Republican staff.
"And most of the major spending provisions in the law do not even take effect until 2014. Congressional Democrats delayed these provisions in order to show only six years of spending under the plan in the original 10-year budget window (from FY2010-19) used by CBO at the time the law was enacted," said the staff report. "Therefore, the original estimate concealed the fact that most of the law's spending only doesn't even begin until four years into the 10-year window. A Senate Budget Committee analysis (based on CBO estimates and growth rates) finds that that total spending under the law will amount to at least $2.6 trillion over a true 10-year period (from FY2014-23) - not $900 billion, as President Obama originally promised."
Partisan sour grapes? You may have noted that the figures used by the GOP staff report come from CBO (the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office).
But there's more.
The Economic Policy Journal notes that the cost of Obamacare won't simply be limited to higher medical costs:
The Joint Committee on Taxation recently released a 96-page report on the tax provisions associated with Affordable Care Act. The report describes the 21 tax increases included in Obamacare, totaling $1.058 trillion (our emphasis) - a steep increase from initial assessment, according to the Tax Prof Blog. The summer 2012 estimate is nearly twice the $569 billion estimate produced at the time of the passage of the law in March 2010.
WWFD: What would the founders do over all these new taxes?
Some of the increases, as compiled by the journal, include:
-- New taxes on so-called "Cadillac," or high-cost, insurance plans.
-- A class warfare tax: Increased payroll and capital gains taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year.
-- Annual taxes on drug manufacturers and importers (a cost which will, of course, be passed along to patients).
-- Annual tax on health insurance providers (again, which will impact your rates - another promise the president has broken).
-- A 10 percent tax on tanning businesses.
-- New fees on insured and self-insured health plans (to punish those who do not opt for a government-run or approved insurance pool).
Yes, Obamacare will cost more than we were told and promised it would cost. A lot more.
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