It seemed like a bad joke when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously and incredibly stated we would have to pass the healthcare reform bill in order to find out what’s in it. But now we’re beginning to find out the awful truth. And it’s no laughing matter.
We have all heard the concerns that Obama’s government take-over of healthcare will impose new costs on employers, and new taxes on everyone. All the while, “robbing” three-quarters of a trillion dollars from Medicare. Which makes you wonder whether the nation can really afford “affordable care.”
But now analysts at The New York Times (not exactly a bastion of Tea Party libertarianism, mind you) have uncovered that the “affordable” care act may drastically raise the cost of health insurance for average middle class families with children.
Even some Democrats in Congress are now concerned that mandatory health insurance coverage may remain unaffordable for many families who do not have high incomes. Especially due to a narrow reading of this unwieldy, ambiguous law by the IRS.
It’s complicated, as is everything where the IRS is involved. But simply put, in terms of complying with the law, the IRS will only “credit” the cost of providing health insurance to an employed individual. Not to that employee’s family. Indeed, a very “family unfriendly” provision and interpretation of the law.
Long-time Democratic lawmakers Henry Waxman [D-CA] and Sander Levin [D-MI], who have a little more experience with these issues than the Obama-Pelosi team that pushed through this ridiculous law, had actually sent a letter warning the White House that, if the healthcare law passed, “many families will remain or potentially become uninsured.”
Repeat: “become uninsured.”
On average, a single person covering his own health insurance has to pay around $5,500 per year. But coverage for a typical family costs over $15,000—nearly three times more. The IRS says that only the cost of health insurance for the individual employee, not for his or her family, can be “credited.” And according to the IRS’s interpretation of the law, this $15,000 is an “affordable” cost. Even for someone making only $35,000 per year.
So incredibly, not only does the law fail to provide “affordable” health insurance to many, it may cause them to lose the insurance they have. How’s that for Obama’s mantra that people who already have health insurance will not be affected?
The American Academy of Pediatrics says, “the IRS’s interpretation of the law could unravel much of the progress that has been made in covering children…” How’s that for “hope and change we can believe in”?
Even the Service Employees International Union (usually a reliable “amen chorus” for the Obama administration—and which is also notorious for infiltrating key voting districts on election days and getting the dead to “rise up” and vote Democrat) says the IRS interpretation, “discriminates against marriage and families.”
Obama doesn’t really appear concerned about traditional marriage, families or children—except to the extent that he can make them dependent upon government.
If you ask me, that’s the kind of “hope and change” none of us can afford.