Yesterday’s Washington Examiner posted an article about the implementation of Obamacare that will begin on January 1, 2013. The article points out that although the law has so far survived a number of court challenges (with more pending), the fact that the law will be implemented will probably not be good news for Democrats running for re-election in 2014.
The article lists some of the major problems with Obamacare:
Americans will only be allowed to contribute $2,500 to flexible spending accounts, which allow participants to pay for medical expenses on a pretax basis. Also, from then on, the accounts can only be used to pay for drugs with a prescription, excluding over-the-counter drugs, which still may be legitimate medical expenses and were previously allowed.
The new year will also ring in a wave of new tax increases. One is the Medicare tax hike on individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than $250,000. Another is the 3.8 percent tax on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents. On top of that, there will be a 2.3 percent tax increase on medical devices. These will be on top of any tax hike that comes out of current end-of-the-year negotiations between Republicans and Democrats to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
The change in the flexible spending accounts (FSA) represents a tax on all Americans who use them. People who take over-the-counter allergy medication will now have to get a doctor’s prescription for the same medicine (at increased cost) if they want to use their FSA account to pay for it. This is a tax on all Americans–even the middle class that the President has says he will not raise taxes on.
Obamacare also increases the expenses of employers with more than 50 employees. This will result in many companies not hiring in order to remain below the 50-employee level. We don’t need anything right now that discourages employment.
The article concludes:
With a number of Republican governors deciding that letting the Obama administration set up their state-based exchanges is the lesser of bad options, the federal government will be facing a number of logistical challenges to getting them up and running.
If it goes badly, this could spell trouble for Democrats up for re-election in 2014. But who’s ever heard of a massive government database and software development program going badly?