I spent a little time with my tax guy yesterday. He had some interesting things to say about ObamaCare.
Here’s what his business clients are facing. His clients are small business people.
Those who have 50-75 employees, he advises to get under 50. So, if you work for a company that fits this category you face layoff or a cut-back to fewer hours. The paperwork and the expense to meet the requirements of ObamaCare just isn’t worth it for these business people.
Those who can’t cut back to less than 50, he says are planning to drop the employee health care and pay the fine. It’s cheaper by several magnitudes. The employees will get a tax credit based on pay. The more they make, the lower the credit. Then the employees can go out into the ObamaCare pool and buy their insurance from Obama. There’s a good chance that they will end up paying more than the tax credit for the same insurance their employer provided. Or, they will get less insurance and find their doctor won’t honor the new insurance.
Then there’s that great employer who provided the very best insurance to their employees, the so-called Cadillac plan. This includes many of the labor unions in this country. If they keep providing that coverage, the employees will get a 1099 and the excess coverage will be deemed income. The employer will pay the tax guy significantly more in all cases to meet all the IRS requirements to test which category the medical coverage falls into and what the employee pay is to see where the employee falls.
Those of us on Medicare will not be greatly impacted by paperwork. We just won’t find any doctors or hospitals who honor Medicare and will have to find yet another supplemental plan that let’s us get health care. And, it won’t be cheap. The AARP has already figured this out and are backtracking on their support of ObamaCare. Too little, too late, AARP. You did this to us and many of us recognized it then and dropped you. Those who didn’t will when they call to get a doctor’s appointment in 2014 and find their doctor no longer takes Medicare patients.
All of this is why the Democrats are trying to find a way to distance themselves from ObamaCare. Like the AARP, too little, too late. It’s your plan and you will get full credit for it. So, the thirty million who had no health insurance and now get it will be very happy and support you at the polls. The other 300 million who will finally get the message that they have been hurt by ObamaCare to support the 30 million who have been helped will see how health care redistribution works. It’s just like income redistribution, you give something up to help someone who doesn’t have or needs more of something.
Some of you will give up your job. Some of you will give up your Cadillac health care plan. Some of you will give up your relationship with your doctor. Some of you will find you must shop for your own health care plan when your employer tells you it’s your job now. Some of you will have to shop for doctors to accept your crappy Medicare plan. Many of you will be paying your tax guy more to handle all the IRS health care tax requirements. Everyone of you will be impacted in some way. Nothing will stay the same. Didn’t your Momma tell you, there’s no free lunch. If you believed 30 million people could get free health insurance without everyone with health insurance kicking in something, she missed one of those essential chats Mom’s should have with kids.
My tax guy also had a conversation with our US Congressman. He passed along a tidbit. There are 3 million Americans in the military today. But, there are 4 million Americans who work to prepare income taxes for the government or work in the government harassing conservatives. That’s about to go up significantly with ObamaCare. The IRS will be your Human Resources group deciding what health care you get and what you pay for that health care.
To make this work, we old people just need to die.