By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Three years ago, President Obama signed into law one of the most sweeping pieces of legislation in recent memory, the Affordable Care Act — or “Obamacare,” as most Americans know it.
To say that the law was and remains controversial would be an understatement. Over the past month, we’ve published a number of articles on the topic ranging from 12 shocking truths about it to the impact Obamacare will have on taxes. And our readers have had a lot to say in the comment sections of each article.
What follows, in turn, is a collection of the five biggest complaints our readers have expressed about Obamacare in the articles that we’ve published on the subject. To generate the list, I’ve curated our best articles on the subject from the past two months.
1. Higher taxes
The biggest complaint is that Obamacare raises taxes. This is particularly true with respect to Medicare taxes for higher-income earners.
As Dan Caplinger discussed in “How Obamacare Changed Your Taxes,” single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year in wages or other work-related earnings will pay an additional 0.9 percentage points in Medicare tax – the threshold increases to $250,000 for taxpayers filing jointly. And taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes exceeding the same thresholds will see a portion of their investment income taxed at the higher rate as well.
Beyond this, as Dan also brings up, is that it decreases the amount that lower-income earners can set aside in a flexible spending plan to $2,500 a year and raises the floor on deductible medical expenses from 7.5% to 10% of adjusted gross income.
2. Skyrocketing health-care costs
One of the principal purposes of Obamacare is to drive down the costs of medical care and insurance premiums. But as Sean Williams noted in “Is Obamacare About to Skyrocket Your Health Care Costs?” there’s reason to be skeptical that it will succeed in doing so.
Sean cites a report (link opens a PDF) by the Society of Actuaries estimating, among other things, that the inclusion of non-group members participating in the insurance pools will increase average individual claims cost by 32%. The increase won’t be uniform across states. In five states, underlying claims are expected to drop. In 37 others, claims costs are expected to increase by 20% or more. The reason is simple: Under the legislation, 32.4 million of the currently 52.4 million uninsured Americans (who often carry the highest risk) will gain coverage.
3. Additional costs on employers
A key provision of the Affordable Care Act mandates that companies with 50 or more employees must provide full-time workers with health insurance or face a penalty of $2,000 per employee. In “Will Obamacare Cost You Your Job?” the Fool’s Keith Speights observed: “For some small businesses, the extra costs for this coverage are forcing tough decisions.” Keith cites two examples in particular. First, small businesses with more than 50 employees could scale back their payroll.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance