It is officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), but this is one of the biggest misnomers in recent history. Of course, this is nothing new in Washington.

Considering all the wrong-headed things Nancy Pelosi has said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it” was arguably the most worrisome. Indeed, I am not aware of any senators who actually read the bill before passing it.

Many citizens were all for it, being coaxed into believing they were going to be getting free health care, similar to Europe and Canada’s social healthcare model, funded from Obama’s often-referred to “stash”.

Not so. Not only is there no free care, it will cost the citizens much more than they imagine, in a myriad of different ways, as we shuffle down the road leading to central planning and an American form of socialism. What are these changes?

Higher Medical Insurance Bills

Not only will care not be free, coverage will cost more. James Capretta, is a health care expert and a student of Obamacare at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center.

He tells us, “The big unwritten story is that for people who already have insurance through the individual market, or small companies that are buying products in the state-regulated small group market—those current policies are going to see premium increases on the order of 25 percent to 30 percent come Jan. 1, 2014. They are going to have a rate shock like you wouldn’t believe.”

Of course, the actual increase will be different in each state. And according to more recent estimates from Forbes.com, “Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men.”

THE PRESIDENT: “Here is a guarantee that I’ve made. If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you’ve got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor. Nobody is trying to change what works in the system. We are trying to change what doesn’t work in the system.”

Now it seems this presidential “guarantee” is valid only if your are buying snake oil.

Putting icing on the cake, people who can’t afford insurance now will be legally forced to purchase something they can’t pay for now at comparatively lower rates. To further compound this problem, many people either don’t have jobs or are being hired on a part-time basis so the employer will not have to provide medical insurance.

It gets worse; if you don’t magically come up with money you don’t have, you will get a fine. Actually, although the bill calls it a fine, the Supreme Court redefined it into a tax so they could push it through.

One of the interesting aspect of this legislation is that the president picks and chooses who has to comply and who gets a pass. For example, he initially indicated that he would give his union cronies an exemption in exchange for their support during the election. This has turned out not to be true. He and his family and the senate were also supposed to be exempted.

As it turned out, he later ruled that they would have to participate but the government (i.e. the taxpayers) will pick up the tab for their premiums.

They will stick with their gold-plated coverage...that the taxpayer pick up the bill for. But here’s the caveat—senators may have to give up their gold-plated insurance if they stay in office. Many are indicating they will retire to keep their current plans forever. On our dime.

Be Prepared to be a Part-Time Worker

Under the new law, the work-week has been redefined. Whereas it used to be 40 hours, it is now 30 hours. If the boss gives you less than 30, he doesn’t have to offer insurance. This will happen. A lot.

In fact, many companies have announced that this will be their new employment policy. It is not mean-spiritedness nor a moral issue—they simply cannot afford it while trying to keep the door open.

To add insult to injury, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will charge employer and individual plans a $63 “fee’ for every person they cover. Fee? For what service exactly? None; this is simply a new tax.

Some employers are coming up with other creative ways to try to retain valuable employees while still remaining competitive. For example, only offering medical insurance to the employee and excluding family coverage. With male employees, this means no maternity coverage.

In the already paranoia-driven gay marriage and social union arena, this will likely invite numerous discrimination lawsuits and accusations of lifestyle witch hunts and discrimination.

Medicaid and Medicare in the Crosshairs

Under Obamacare, both Medicare and Medicaid are projected to add 35-40 million enrollees over the next decade. The cost projections amount to a staggering 35 percent increase of the current state burden of $190 billion.

This money must come from somewhere. Individual states will face massive cost-sharing increases, with a disproportionate increase in the Mountain States.

This is where the so-called “death squads” come into play. Government is fond of deciding who gets how much of the financial tax-funded pie and this is no exception. These decisions are now taken away from insurance companies and given to government flunkies.

Zeke Emanuel is the physician brother of the former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and an influential advisor in this administration. He has publicly advocated requiring reductions of care for those with an allegedly decreased quality of life.

With very science fiction undertones, it boils down to this: how valuable are you to society? The government has already floated trial balloons suggesting that the very old and the very young will likely be denied care, giving preference to those individual in their “productive years”.

Your Capital Gain Taxes are Going Up

Yes, time to tighten your belt in order to give more of your money to the government. According to Smartmoney.com, “Right now, the maximum federal income tax rate on long-term capital gains and dividends is only 15%. Starting in 2013, the maximum rate on long-term gains is scheduled to go up to 20% and the maximum rate on dividends is scheduled to increase to 39.6% as the so-called Bush tax cuts expire. ”

The maximum rate on dividends will be a whopping 43.4%, versus the current 15%. Not only are these changes over-the-top in terms of the amount of increase, they come at the worst possible time.

Businesses are already struggling. But now there is scant motivation to invest in corporate America. It makes much more sense to invest in companies overseas and put income in offshore accounts.

Without the support of stock ownership, the economy has more reason to contract than it does to expand. Another significant tax is the 2.3-percent excise tax on the total revenues of medical-device manufacturers.

The tax will be assessed whether companies they turn a profit or suffer a loss. The tax will is all-inclusive, x-ray machines, pacemakers, surgical tools, artificial hips; you name it.

A side effect will be further loss of jobs. The Manhattan Institute projects that the tax could eliminate as many as 43,000 jobs — and over $3.5 billion in employee compensation. Even the uber-liberal Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) described it as a “job-killing tax.”

The bottom line is that things are going to get increasingly painful as the true cost of Obamacare becomes more apparent. We just have to enact it to finally find out what is in it. To learn more, read the comprehensive ObamaCare Survival Guide.

Reference:

• Smartmoney.com
• Forbes.com

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