Tipsheet

Insurance Company Lays Out Obamacare Tax Hikes

The cost of Obamacare has been most visible recently in the form of purchase and coverage mandates, but we should all recognize that there are explicit taxes scheduled to take effect next year as well. President Obama has been jerking the insurance companies around with the sign-up deadlines and "un-cancelled plans." The companies might be getting a little retribution.

The New York Post reports that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama is putting an explicit line on their form that shows what the Obamacare taxes are costing consumers every month:

But one insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, laid bare the taxes on its bills with a separate line item for “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes.”

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... [and] Insurers pay a 3.5 percent user fee to sell medical plans on the HealthCare.gov Web site.

The Post goes on to write about the other hidden taxes in Obamacare, like the medical-device tax and reduced tax deductions.

That's not to mention the "Cadillac tax" that will go into effect later in this decade, meant to discourage comprehensive insurance and reduce the inequality of insurance plan offerings. So while the cost of insurance itself has risen, Americans might soon find out what other ways that Obamacare is forcing Americans to pay for it.