In 2014, the “Affordable Care Act” will hit Americans with new taxes, in addition to increased insurance premiums.
The vast majority of insurers aren’t advertising the new federal taxes (that are added on to premiums). Instead, they are opting instead to discretely pass them on to customers.
However, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, has disclosed the tax amounts to its customers, with a separate line item for “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes.”
The new taxes and fees include:
- A 2% levy on every health plan, which is expected to net about $8 billion for the government in 2014 and increase to $14.3 billion in 2018.
- A $2 fee per policy that goes into a new medical-research trust fund called the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
- A 3.5% user fee to sell medical plans on the HealthCare.gov Web site.
- A 2.3% medical-device tax.
Then there’s the new Medicare tax.
Under ObamaCare, individual tax filers earning more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 will pay an added 0.9% Medicare surtax on top of the existing 1.45% Medicare payroll tax. They’ll also pay an extra 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, such as investment dividends, rental income and capital gains.
