Thursday, December 05, 2013

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Well, for a certain value of "wonderful," one supposes:

"The Obama administration quietly finalized the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a provision in Obamacare that will cost nearly $60 billion over the next five years and raise health care premiums by 3 percent." [emphasis added]

Gotta love that acronym - talk about truth in advertising.

I find this a bit disingenuous, though:

"The annual tax is levied for “United States health risks,” and is hidden from consumers since it is directly assessed on health insurance companies."

Um, no: why can't these rocket surgeons in the press understand the most basic, fundamental economic principles? In this case, they should know that insurers never pay taxes, hidden or otherwise.

And this part is interesting, as well:

"Most large corporations self-insure ... small companies actually buy health insurance and it’s only the actual health insurance that is subject to the tax, self-insured plans are not"

Guess what other kinds of organizations self-insure?

Quelle surprise.
blog comments powered by Disqus