How will ObamaCare impact you?
More information is slowly coming out as to what the giant multi-thousand page monstrosity known as ObamaCare entails. Our left leaning media decided now that their idealogical fight has completed and a new entitlement program has been passed, they can pretend to be reporters and actually divulge the real impact of ObamaCare.
NYT published a piece listing several new mandates while feigning shock and surprise. So assuming you understand that ObamaCare will result in higher insurance premiums, worse coverage and longer wait times at doctors, lets look at some more goodies brought to you buy the socialists from DC.
You see, now that the onus of paying for health care falls on the Federal Government, they invariably gain interest in your personal life. How much you eat, what you eat, how you tan and any other life-style habit that may impact health care. If you are found to be violating some predetermined set of acceptable living policies then you will be punished. Of course some will reason that mandating restaurants publish caloric information is a good step in the name of transparency, but this is just thinly veiled Statism. Beyond the question of the cost of enforcing such a policy, there is a moral dilemma, on what grounds can the Government make such a request. This will invariably hurt restaurants not only in costs spent in producing these menus, but in the loss of business due to paranoid consumers watching their calories (although it begs the question as to why they are in a restaurant in the first place). Lastly and far more importantly, if there was a genuine demand for such information then it should have been left to the owners of such restaurants to display this information! If this information is not displayed then it is probably detrimental to the restaurants and if that is so, then it is up to consumers to either request this information or eat elsewhere.
In addition to that, taxing tanning salons because it may or may not lead to cancer follows the exact same logical path. Our government now has given itself authority to punish anyone or anything they deem as dangerous to their perfect society.
Attacks on HSAs and Flex spending accounts shows that instead of giving people MORE choice with how they purchase health care and instead of expanding the role of HSAs to usher in competition, the bill stifles this already fledgling concept. In fact they are doing everything they can to undermine and neutralize personal responsibility in an effort to control and dictate personal health care decisions.
Virtually all of these items will impact small/medium businesses negatively, with some provisions like mandating floor space for breast feeding mothers bordering on the clinically insane. This bill alone will sap and stagnate future economic recovery in ways that are impossible to measure or quantify.
NYT published a piece listing several new mandates while feigning shock and surprise. So assuming you understand that ObamaCare will result in higher insurance premiums, worse coverage and longer wait times at doctors, lets look at some more goodies brought to you buy the socialists from DC.
- Chain restaurants must list calorie for all items on their menus.
- Employers with 50 or more employees must provide a space and time for a mother to breast feed.
- Indoor tanning is slapped with a 10% tax.
- W-2s must provide detailed health benefit breakdowns
- Flex spending accounts: Starting in January, you will no longer be able to tap your account to cover aspirin, vitamins and other over-the-counter medications, unless they are prescribed by a doctor. Come 2013, the total amount you can contribute annually will be limited to $2,500.
- Health Savings Accounts: The health reform law increased the tax on H.S.A. withdrawals for non-medical expenses to 20 percent from 10 percent for people under age 65.
- Abstinence: The health reform law restores $50 million a year for abstinence-only programs for each of the next five years. But there’s a catch: states must match any federal funding they receive.
You see, now that the onus of paying for health care falls on the Federal Government, they invariably gain interest in your personal life. How much you eat, what you eat, how you tan and any other life-style habit that may impact health care. If you are found to be violating some predetermined set of acceptable living policies then you will be punished. Of course some will reason that mandating restaurants publish caloric information is a good step in the name of transparency, but this is just thinly veiled Statism. Beyond the question of the cost of enforcing such a policy, there is a moral dilemma, on what grounds can the Government make such a request. This will invariably hurt restaurants not only in costs spent in producing these menus, but in the loss of business due to paranoid consumers watching their calories (although it begs the question as to why they are in a restaurant in the first place). Lastly and far more importantly, if there was a genuine demand for such information then it should have been left to the owners of such restaurants to display this information! If this information is not displayed then it is probably detrimental to the restaurants and if that is so, then it is up to consumers to either request this information or eat elsewhere.
In addition to that, taxing tanning salons because it may or may not lead to cancer follows the exact same logical path. Our government now has given itself authority to punish anyone or anything they deem as dangerous to their perfect society.
Attacks on HSAs and Flex spending accounts shows that instead of giving people MORE choice with how they purchase health care and instead of expanding the role of HSAs to usher in competition, the bill stifles this already fledgling concept. In fact they are doing everything they can to undermine and neutralize personal responsibility in an effort to control and dictate personal health care decisions.
Virtually all of these items will impact small/medium businesses negatively, with some provisions like mandating floor space for breast feeding mothers bordering on the clinically insane. This bill alone will sap and stagnate future economic recovery in ways that are impossible to measure or quantify.
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