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November 18, 2010 at 07:00 PM
I think most of us recognize that health care reform was needed in this country. If you have been denied coverage, had a pre-existing condition, were unemployed without access to employer-sponsored health coverage, were impoverished because you or a family member exceeded your “cap” or maximum payout for health claims, etc., then the only alternative was to live without health coverage, and that seems to be quite unacceptable in a country such as ours.
However, the health care reform bill, or “Obama care,” as it is has been called, which was forced into law, and admittedly not read or understood by many of our legislators who passed it, is quite severe and places great hardship, increased costs, mandates and taxes on those of us employed, covered and paying taxes as well as to the employers who must implement the new requirements. The fact that this bill would be passed by our “representatives” without understanding and debate and recognition of the true costs of implementation is heinous in and of itself.
In fact, those already covered by employer-sponsored and individual health care plans are already seeing their premiums increase, and they will continue to do so, as the insurance companies prepare for the current and future costs of implementation. Many of the mandates in the new law are to be phased in or enacted over the next four years.
With all of that said, what then are the new costs and taxes to be borne by the young or old, working or retired? Indeed, the fact that you are retired or about to retire does not make you immune from paying your “fair share”!
The following are just some of the currently recognized costs and new tax increases coming our way as the provisions and requirements of this bill are still being evaluated. Additionally, this Obama care fiasco will require a myriad of new agencies and bureaucracies just to oversee it!
Well, to start, dividend income, on which many people, especially seniors rely, has been taxed at 15 percent up to this point. The new health care law will now tax dividend income as ordinary income up to 39 percent. It is yet to be determined what negative impact this will have on investing, as dividends are often the results of income from investments or investments in the growth of companies and our economy.
