Keeping the Promise of Repealing Obamacare

• Obamacare increases health care costs: higher premiums and deductibles for patients; higher Medicaid bills for states; more burdens on job creators; and higher taxes.

• Obamacare has led to dysfunction at every turn – exposing consumers’ personal data to cybersecurity risks, causing health insurance plans to be canceled and provider networks to narrow, even discouraging marriage.

• Obamacare continues to be unpopular and unworkable, and it must be repealed.

Obamacare’s Higher Costs

 President Obama and congressional Democrats promised that Obamacare would reduce costs. The president said it would “lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government.” Instead, it’s making things worse by increasing health care costs.

• Higher premiums – President Obama said that Obamacare would bring down premiums by $2,500 per year for the typical family. Non-partisan health research firm Avalere Health says that for 2016, the lowest-cost silver plan will increase 13 percent and the lowest cost bronze plan will rise by 16 percent, on average.
• Higher deductibles – Even HHS Secretary Burwell has acknowledged that Obamacare plans come with high deductibles. Deductibles for the lowest-cost Obamacare plans have increased from last year by almost 11 percent for individuals and 10 percent for families.
• Higher costs for states – The law forces 14 million new beneficiaries into struggling state Medicaid programs, at a cost to states of $46 billion between 2016 and 2025. States are also finding that running their own exchanges is costly and sometimes unsustainable.
• Higher costs for job creators – The tax on job creators who can’t provide workers with government-approved insurance is projected to total $167 billion over 10 years. The left-leaning Urban Institute declared this tax is “not worth the price we seem to be paying.”
• Higher taxes – According to the Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare hikes taxes by $1.2 trillion in the next decade.

“It’s easy to glaze over the numbers, but this is real money coming out of the pockets of real families. This is money that could help send a child to college or put Thanksgiving Dinner on the table. But it will go instead to insurance bills made unnecessarily expensive in part because of Obamacare’s costly rules and regulations.”

– Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 11/5/2015

Obamacare’s Higher Taxes

Obamacare includes more than a trillion dollars in new taxes that are being borne directly and indirectly by hard-working American families. Some of Obamacare’s most significant new taxes are:

• Individual mandate tax – A mandate that Americans purchase government-directed health coverage, with tax penalties for those who do not.
• Employer mandate tax – A mandate that employers provide government-directed health coverage, with tax penalties for those who do not.
• Health savings taxes – A tax increase on flexible spending accounts, increased tax penalties on health savings accounts and Archer medical savings accounts, and a tax increase on the purchase of over-the-counter medicine.
• Cadillac tax – A 40 percent excise tax on certain high-priced workplace health plans, which will reduce their value to employees.
• Medical device tax – A 2.3 percent tax on sales by manufacturers of medical devices and equipment, which will cost jobs.
• Health insurance tax – A tax on health insurers that will be passed on to consumers.
• Chronic illness tax – A tax increase on the chronically ill through a cutback in the itemized deduction for medical expenses.
• Wage and income taxes – An additional 0.9 percent payroll tax on wages and self-employment income and a new 3.8 percent tax on dividends, capital gains, and other investment income for taxpayers earning over $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married).

Obamacare’s Effects on Jobs

Democrats promised Obamacare would create jobs. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed, “In its life, the health law will create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” Hiring has remained sluggish since Obamacare became law, and many Americans who want full-time jobs are struggling to find or keep them.

• Fewer jobs – CBO has projected that Obamacare will result in 2 million fewer full-time jobs in 2017, and 2.5 million fewer by 2024.
• Less full-time work – The law set a new cutoff of 30 hours for workers who needed to be offered insurance. An analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data found that between December 2012 and September 2014, the number of employees working 31-34 hours per week shrank by 7 percent. Workers clocking 25-29 hours a week grew by 12 percent.
• Costlier benefits – According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, employees who have job-based insurance have seen average out-of-pocket expenses climb from $900 in 2010 to $1,300 in 2015.

Obamacare’s Dysfunction

Obamacare has created headaches and dysfunction at every turn: failures with signing up for coverage; billions of wasted taxpayer dollars; limitations on Americans’ choices and access to health care providers; and penalties for getting married.

• The HealthCare.gov rollout was plagued with problems. Even the president acknowledged that it was a “well-documented disaster.” The website continues to pose major security threats to the personal information of Americans using the site.
• The Obama administration wasted at least $1.45 billion on failed state exchanges.
• More than half of the Obamacare co-ops have already failed. At least 700,000 people – some of whom already lost their plans once under Obamacare – are losing their health insurance plans. The failed co-ops squandered about $1.24 billion in taxpayer loans.
• Many insurance plans are narrowing their provider networks, limiting the doctors who patients can see.
• Obamacare discourages marriage. It includes two marriage penalties: one makes it more difficult for low-income people to qualify for subsidies if they are married; another requires married couples to pay Medicare payroll tax at a lower threshold than a non-married couple would.
• The Obama administration cut in half the projections for how many people would be enrolled in Obamacare in 2016. CBO estimated the Obamacare exchanges would serve 21 million people in 2016; but now HHS predicts only 9.4 to 11.4 million enrollees next year.

Obamacare has broken promise after promise to Americans. It has increased costs and decreased choices. Republicans committed to repealing Obamacare in the budget resolution passed earlier this year. Reconciliation comes with certain restrictions, but it provides an opportunity to repeal as much of Obamacare as possible and put a repeal bill on President Obama’s desk.