Surprise! Here Come the New Obamacare Taxes and Fees

In 2014, Americans will find some surprises on their insurance premiums and income tax bills, and they aren’t going to be happy.

Most insurance companies aren’t publicizing the Obamacare taxes – instead, they are discreetly adding them to bills.  So far, it has been reported that one insurance company has clearly listed the tax on its bills with a line item titled “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes.”

The New York Post reported on the taxes and fees Americans are seeing on their insurance premium bills:

The new taxes on one customer’s bill added up to $23.14 a month, or $277.68 annually, according to Kaiser Health News. It boosted the monthly premium from $322.26 to $345.40 for that individual.

The new taxes and fees include a 2 percent 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.

There’s also a $2 fee per policy that goes into a new medical-research trust fund called the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Obamacare supporters claim that federal subsidies for many low-income Americans will not only cover the taxes, but pay a big chunk of the premiums. But, the Obamacare taxes don’t only apply to the premiums – consumers will also pay hidden taxes.

One of those hidden taxes is the 2.3 percent medical-device tax on items such as pacemakers, stents and prosthetic limbs, inflating the cost for those who need them.

People with high out-of-pocket medical expenses also will get smaller income-tax deductions. Americans are currently allowed to deduct expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of their annual income, but that threshold jumps to 10 percent under Obamacare. The result? Taxpayer costs of about $15 billion over 10 years.

There’s also a 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 percent Medicare surtax on top of the existing 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax. In addition, they will also pay an extra 3.8 percent Medicare tax on unearned income, such as investment dividends, rental income and capital gains.

The government is trying to make Americans buy something many of us don’t want, and now we are being forced to pay additional taxes for it – taxes that are set to increase year after year.