The Elephant In Room.....Are You Being Crushed By Obamacare Taxes?

By Coleen Elkins

Are you on a Medicare Advantage Plan, Under 65 individual plan for yourself and your family or on group benefits plan at work? YOU ARE paying taxes accessed to your health insurance policy.  These taxes will increase each year!


There are six new taxes accessed by the law. These are taxes that did not exist on health insurance policies prior to March of 2010.

1. Patient-Centered Outcome Research Institute (Comparative Effectiveness) Fee

2. Annual Heath Insurance Industry Fee

3. Trhansitional Reinsurance Program Assessment Fee

4. Risk Adjustment Program User Fee

5. Marketplace ie: Exchange User Fees

6. Cadillac Excise Tax (for high cost plans)

What does this mean to you in cost?

Impact on individual market consumers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,150, and for family coverage an average $5,080.

Impact on small employers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,760, and for family coverage an average $6,830.

Impact on large employers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,610, and for family coverage an average $7,130.

Impact on Medicare Advantage beneficiaries: Increase costs $16 to $20 per member per month in 2014 and will increase to between $32 and $42 by 2023.  The average expected increase in the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage over ten years is $3,590.

Is there relief in sight? Possibly!

There is a new bill House Bill that would repeal the tax. Representative Charles Boustany Jr. (R-LA)
he is joined by Representative Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) which is interesting. Krysten Sinema has been  an advid Obamacare supporter since she has taken office.

Rep. Boustany says the tax hurts individuals and businesses by increasing premiums and out of pockets. Boustany spent 30 years as a cardiovascular surgeon. In his comments to explain his actions he said this. "American families and small businesses are on the brink of being crushed under the weight of the Health Insurance Tax,” Boustany said in a statement, adding that the tax threatens “hundreds of thousands of lost jobs over the next decade.”The tax is an important revenue source for the Affordable Care Act, amounting to $8 billion in 2014 and rising to $14.3 billion by 2018, though the Congressional Budget Office has warned it would be “largely passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums.”

Note: Open enrollment for Obamacare has ended for individual health insurance for those under age 65. Only those who have a qualified event can now enroll in health insurance. To learn about the law  visit our website http://www.yourhealthbenefitsmarketplace.com and to learn about Medicare and how to maximize your benefits at retirement visit our website http://www.yourmedicaremarketplace.com.