White House stands by position that health law mandate isn't a tax
The White House is standing by its position that individual mandate
in President Obama's healthcare law is a penalty despite the Supreme
Court's decision to uphold it as a tax.
White House spokesman Jay
Carney told reporters traveling with Obama on Friday that the mandate
enforces a penalty, not a tax, because people have a choice whether
to obtain health insurance.
"You can call it what you will, but if
affects 1 percent" of the population, Carney said, according to a White
House pool report.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in the court’s majority
opinion Thursday that the healthcare law “imposes a tax citizens may
lawfully choose to pay in lieu of buying health insurance.” In doing so,
he embraced the government's fallback legal argument, which was that
the mandate is constitutional under Congress's taxing powers.
Republicans
have seized on the ruling to argue that Obama misled the public by
arguing during the healthcare debate that the mandate is not a tax. He
and congressional Democrats strongly disputed the charge that the
mandate would raise taxes during the bitter debate before the law was
passed.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed to the
court's ruling on the mandate to argue that the healthcare law was
passed "on a deception."
The mandate requires most taxpayers to either buy insurance or make a payment to the IRS starting in 2014.
Jonathan
Gruber, a healthcare economist who helped design Obama’s healthcare
overhaul, made the same point as Carney on a conference call with
reporters Friday.
“It’s not a tax on the middle class,” Gruber said. “It’s a choice they’re making.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementa...
Top Opinion
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+13There is no low that Obama and crew won't go. The SC just said it IS a tax, otherwise Obamacare would have been declared unconstitutional. The GOP are going to slam Obama hard on this one and the Tea Party are coming out again and coming out hard.
Obama, Carney, Gruber, and the Femocrats are nothing but F*****g A*****es!
Of course the WH argued before the Supreme Court that the law WAS A TAX.
You can't make a cow out of a horse. IT"S A TAX.
However, it is a tax!
Not only would lawyers consider it a tax but accountants would also.
The cost of the 2,700-page overhaul has already doubled to $1.7 trillion. Health insurance premiums are still rising and, according to the CBO, will increase by 5.7 percent per year between 2012 and 2022.
The federal overhaul was supposed to drive costs down by preventing cost-shifting – where hospitals pay for the cost of providing services to the uninsured by raising fees on everyone else, which results in higher insurance premiums. But there is far more serious cost shifting due to Medicaid, the program for the poor, which pays doctors and hospitals far less than private insurance.
Yet of the 34 million uninsured who will obtain health care coverage by 2021 through Obamacare, about half, or 17 million, will be covered by expanding Medicaid. About 1.6 million additional Californians will be enrolled in our state's version, Medi-Cal.
But according to the California Hospital Association, of the $12 billion in uncompensated care California community hospitals provided in 2010, $2.4 billion was due to the uninsured and more than $8.4 billion was due to "payment shortfalls" from Medicare and Medi-Cal – costs being shifte...
The cost of the 2,700-page overhaul has already doubled to $1.7 trillion. Health insurance premiums are still rising and, according to the CBO, will increase by 5.7 percent per year between 2012 and 2022.
The federal overhaul was supposed to drive costs down by preventing cost-shifting – where hospitals pay for the cost of providing services to the uninsured by raising fees on everyone else, which results in higher insurance premiums. But there is far more serious cost shifting due to Medicaid, the program for the poor, which pays doctors and hospitals far less than private insurance.
Yet of the 34 million uninsured who will obtain health care coverage by 2021 through Obamacare, about half, or 17 million, will be covered by expanding Medicaid. About 1.6 million additional Californians will be enrolled in our state's version, Medi-Cal.
But according to the California Hospital Association, of the $12 billion in uncompensated care California community hospitals provided in 2010, $2.4 billion was due to the uninsured and more than $8.4 billion was due to "payment shortfalls" from Medicare and Medi-Cal – costs being shifted to "privately insured Californians, private contributors and local governments."
Thus the vast expansion of Medicaid will only cause insurance premiums to rise even further.
Furthermore, adding 1.6 million more people to Medi-Cal, which already covers 7 million Californians and is in dire financial shape, will not only diminish access in a program where it is already hard to find a doctor, but "will substantially increase" future state Medi-Cal costs, after federal subsidies taper down, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06...
Not to mention, it was the Senate version (not the House version) of Obamacare that ended up becoming law -- even though the Constitution clearly says that legislation which levies taxes must originate in the House!
This whole thing is an absolute disgrace. It says that something is very fundamentally f***-ed up with our government. With all three branches of it.
they say everything in the economy is fine ....
some the whitehouse has programmed ,,,,,the rest know better ....enough said !
Since 8 in 10 Americans already have healthcare insurance, and with this program providing the remaining 20% with the chance to get it at a lower cost, that means fewer people will be fined for not having it.
So it's important not to listen to Republicans the next 4 months when they say everyone will be taxed because of the new healthcare program.
It's not only not true, it's a lie.
Indeed they are. But his plan, which subsidizes some 30 million uninsured, amounts to a $1.8 trillion whammy on working families. And that's just for starters.
The court was silent about the 20 other different taxes hidden in ObamaCare, more than half of which affect families earning less than $250,000 a year.
The new taxes, which cost some $675 billion over the next decade, include:
• A 2.3% excise tax on U.S. sales of medical devices that's already devastating the medical supply industry and its workforce. The levy is a $20 billion blow to an industry that employs roughly 400,000.
Several major manufacturers have been roiled, including: Michigan-based Stryker Corp., which blames the tax for 1,000 layoffs; Indiana-based Zimmer Corp., which cites the tax in laying off 450 and taking a $50 million charge against earnings; Indiana-based Cook Medical Inc., which has scrubbed plans to open a U.S. factory; Minnesota-based Medtronic Inc., which expects an annual charge agains...
Indeed they are. But his plan, which subsidizes some 30 million uninsured, amounts to a $1.8 trillion whammy on working families. And that's just for starters.
The court was silent about the 20 other different taxes hidden in ObamaCare, more than half of which affect families earning less than $250,000 a year.
The new taxes, which cost some $675 billion over the next decade, include:
• A 2.3% excise tax on U.S. sales of medical devices that's already devastating the medical supply industry and its workforce. The levy is a $20 billion blow to an industry that employs roughly 400,000.
Several major manufacturers have been roiled, including: Michigan-based Stryker Corp., which blames the tax for 1,000 layoffs; Indiana-based Zimmer Corp., which cites the tax in laying off 450 and taking a $50 million charge against earnings; Indiana-based Cook Medical Inc., which has scrubbed plans to open a U.S. factory; Minnesota-based Medtronic Inc., which expects an annual charge against earnings of $175 million, and Boston Scientific Corp., which has opted to open plants in tax-friendlier Ireland and China to help offset a $100 million charge against earnings.
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• A 3.8% surtax on investment income from capital gains and dividends that applies to single filers earning more than $200,000 and married couples filing jointly earning more than $250,000.
• A $50,000 excise tax on charitable hospitals that fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance" and other rules set by the Health and Human Services Dept.
• A $24 billion tax on the paper industry to control a pollutant known as black liquor.
• A $2.3 billion-a-year tax on drug companies.
• A 10% excise tax on indoor tanning salons.
• An $87 billion hike in Medicare payroll taxes for employees, as well as the self-employed.
• A hike in the threshold for writing off medical expenses to 10% of adjusted gross income from 7.5%.
• A new cap on flexible spending accounts of $2,500 a year.
• Elimination of the tax deduction for employer-provided prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients.
• An income surtax of 1% of adjusted gross income, rising to 2.5% by 2016, on individuals who refuse to go along with ObamaCare by buying a policy not OK'd by the government.
• A $2,000 tax charged to employers with 50 or more workers for every full-time worker not offered health coverage.
• A $60 billion tax on health insurers.
• A 40% excise tax on so-called Cadillac, or higher cost, health insurance plans.
All told, there are 21 new or higher taxes imposed by Obama's health care law — and 21 more reasons to repeal it.
Since 8 in 10 Americans already have healthcare, and with this program providing the remaining 20% with the chance to get it at a lower cost, that means fewer people will be fined for not having it.