Healthcare Taxes -> Ric Edelman Says Life Got Harder

Icebear: This is the commentary that Ric Edelman offered on the new Healthcare laws.

Health Care Reform: Life Just Got Harder

The health care bill is now law. As a result, taxes are rising. Many middle-class working Americans will soon incur greater expenses for services they have already been receiving. As a humanitarian, I don’t believe anybody can argue with the principle of providing health insurance to 32 million Americans who have not had access to it. But those benefits have a high cost, and middle-class working Americans will be the ones paying for it.

Let’s take a look at the new taxes that the 2010 health care law has created. Most will be phased in over the next few years and are as follows:

2010

Starting July 1, indoor tanning salons will charge a 10% sales tax.

2011

Pharmaceutical manufacturers will collectively pay a new excise tax, starting at $2.5 billion and rising over time. The drug makers will no doubt pass this new cost onto consumers.

Non-qualified distributions from Health Savings Accounts will be taxed at 20% instead of the current rate of 10%. That’s a 100% tax increase.

2012

Private insurance plans will be forced to pay the government $1 or $2 each year for each participant. If you have health insurance through a private insurance plan, you will likely be required to pay this charge.

2013

Medicare payroll taxes will rise 62% for those earning more than $200,000 a year ($250,000 if you are married filing jointly). The tax on wages in excess of $200,000 (or $250,000) is rising from 1.45% to 2.35%. That’s an additional tax of 0.9%, or a 62% increase.

There will also be a new 3.8% tax on gross investment income for those earning more than $200,000 ($250,000 for married filing jointly). “Investment income” includes interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, annuities and royalties. In addition to this new tax, capital gains taxes are set to rise in 2011 from 15% to 20% — that’s a 33% increase. Therefore, for people who are making over $200,000 a year ($250,000 if you are married filing jointly), the total tax on capital gains is jumping from 15% to 23.8%. That’s a 59% increase.

Medical device manufacturers must collect a new national sales tax of 2.9%. You will directly pay this tax, but it will not apply to eyeglasses, contact lenses or hearing aids.

Employers will no longer receive a subsidy for providing retiree prescription drug coverage. Companies will pay more to provide such benefits as a result (AT&T has already announced that it will pay $1 billion in new taxes annually because of this provision). Similar announcements have been made by John Deere ($150 million), Caterpillar ($100 million), 3M Company ($90 million) and AK Steele ($31 million), and many more companies in the Fortune 500 are expected to make similar announcements soon. It is widely expected that Corporate America will pass these costs onto consumers in the form of higher prices for their goods and services, reduce the benefits they provide to their retired employees (who will in turn be forced to pay higher health care costs) or both.

You will not be able to deduct medical expenses on your tax return until you’ve spent 10% of your Adjusted Gross Income. Currently, you can begin deductions after you spend 7.5% of your AGI. Therefore, this is a 33% increase in the threshold.

Contributions to Flexible Spending Accounts will be capped at $2,500 per year, and you will no longer be able to use the money to buy over-the-counter drugs. This change will cause some taxpayers to pay as much as several thousand dollars more in health care expenses and in annual income taxes.

If you’re an executive in the health insurance industry and earn more than half a million dollars a year, taxes will effectively double for all of your income above $500,000.

2014

Employers with more than 50 employees that do not provide health insurance to their employees will pay a $2,000 penalty per employee per year, starting with the 31st employee.

If you do not have health insurance, you and each member of your household will pay a new tax of 1% of household income (at least $95 per person per year). This tax will rise to 2.5% per year (at least $695 per person) by 2016.

2018

Health insurance plans that cost more than $10,200 for individuals ($27,500 per family) will pay a new 40% tax on any coverage that exceeds the limit. Plan sponsors will no doubt pass this cost along to you.

In addition to these new taxes, the new health care law cuts federal funding of Medicare by $500 billion over the next decade. The states will find themselves forced to deal with this cutback, and they will have little choice but to increase state income taxes, force Medicare patients to pay more of their health care costs, or both.

Medicare is not the only entitlement program likely to see cuts. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 2010 will be the first year that Social Security pays out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes. This was not expected to occur until 2016. Based on current projections, Social Security will be broke by 2037 unless changes are made. That means taxes will rise, and benefits will be delayed or reduced, or all three.

Retirees are already feeling pressure. There was no cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security in 2010, and none is expected for 2011 either. This represents a net decrease in income for retirees, because Medicare taxes continue to rise despite the fact that there is no offsetting increase in Social Security benefits.

Meanwhile, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College released a study in March 2010 showing that married retirees who are both 65 years of age and currently free of chronic disease will spend $197,000 on health care during retirement. And a 2008 study from the Schwab Center for Financial Research says that one-third of baby boomers are currently providing financial assistance to parents, and 50% are providing support to children, proving that millions of Americans are true members of the so-called “Sandwich Generation.”

All these statistics help explain why 84% of Americans say they are not confident that they will ever be able to retire, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey.

Radio legend to run for president?

I have been a listener to Coast to Coast since 1995. This is a rather interesting development. -Eisbär

'I would not hesitate to make my birth certificate available'

Posted: March 09, 2010
10:03 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Applicants for the Oval Office in 2012 already have begun lining up, just one year into President Obama's term, amid CBS poll results that overwhelming flunk the first-term Democrat and show a majority of Americans opposed to Obama's No. 1 agenda item – nationalized health care.

Among the possible candidates is Coast to Coast AM radio talk-show host George Noory, who told WND right away that there would be no questions about his eligibility as there are about Obama's qualifications under the Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural born citizen."

"I was born in Detroit, Mich., in 1950, and I would not hesitate to make my birth certificate available to every member of the media," he said.

Obama has faced a long list of legal and other challenges alleging he either was not born in Hawaii as he has stated, or that he was not qualified because of his father's foreign citizenship at his birth.

Several of the challenges still are pending in various appellate level courts, and there has begun a move among the states to require candidates for the office of president to provide documentation of eligibility before being allowed on state ballots.

Noory previously told WND he would respond if drafted as a candidate for presidential and later repeated the promise.

"I have never run for political office," he said, "but every night I am reaching out to millions of Americans on the radio and I am deeply concerned that the middle class of the United States is being sold out to multi-national corporations with a globalist agenda.

"I have historically remained non-partisan, but as long as the United States remains a two-party system, it's increasingly hard to tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats. People are looking for someone in government to tell them the truth – we need that now more than ever," he said.

One of his concerns is energy independence.

"We need to free ourselves right now, not 10 years from now, from our dependence on foreign oil," Noory said. "We are being strangled by the oil cartels."

Further, the income tax is hurting the nation, he said.

"The income tax needs to be abolished or greatly restructured," Noory said, "because Americans deserve to get 100 percent use of the money they work hard to earn.

"I would do away with the federal withholding taxes

on income and go to a sales tax as an alternative," he said. "Americans who work hard for their money have a right to keep what they earn."

Noory, who Noory served nine years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, also worries about the influence of a globalist agenda on the U.S. He has devoted shows to casting a spotlight on efforts to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

"We need a government that does not give in to a globalist agenda," Noory said, "an agenda I am now convinced seeks to bring America as a sovereign nation and the middle class to their knees."

The economy further causes him concern, he said.

"Why are we outsourcing millions high-paying jobs to China and India?" he asked. "Why don't we secure the border and stop the country being flooded with millions of illegal immigrants? These are important questions on the mind of middle class voters all over America who are worried the politicians aren't listening."

"Jobs, jobs, jobs – that needs to be our national focus right now."

On health care, he said true reform can only come about when a bipartisan plan is developed.

Will he actually join the race?

"That's a huge question," Noory answered. "Right now, I'll continue to focus on 'Coast to Coast AM.' But, who knows? I'm certainly not convinced that professional politicians in either the Democratic or Republican parties have what the majority of American voters want in a president."

His "Coast to Coast AM" contract with Premiere Radio recently was extended another year, to run until 2013. But he has told his audience he considers 2012 a threshold year in which worldwide politics will transform into a new era of freedom.

WND staff reporter Jerome Corsi is a frequent guest in Noory's program and has addressed topics ranging from international economics and the prospects for emerging from the current global recession to foreign policy and Iran's push for nuclear weapons.

WND asked Noory how he could be a serious candidate for president when "Coast to Coast AM" has been known for its emphasis on UFOs, ancient Egypt and the supernatural.

"The current crop of political candidates looks out of touch, saying nothing new or genuine. By 2012 people are going to be saying, 'We cannot continue down the path we have been going as it will lead us only back to the familiar dead end we now see in Congress and the White House,'" he said.

"Coast to Coast AM" has the largest nighttime radio audience in the United States, reaching an estimated 3 to 5 million Americans seven days a week on AM radio.

Noory and also has hosted WND Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein to discuss his book "Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans to a Jew!"