Thursday, September 20, 2012
CBO raises estimate of those hit by Obama health care tax
Congress‘ official scorekeeper said Wednesday that 30 million people will be uninsured when President Obama’s health care law goes fully into effect, including six million Americans who are expected to pay a tax penalty — about two million more than originally forecast when the law was passed in 2010.
After initially predicting that the law would leave just 21 million lacking health insurance, the Congressional Budget Office has raised its estimate, blaming the slow economy, changes Congress has made to the law and states who said they’ll refuse to expand their Medicaid programs after the Supreme Court said they don’t have to.
The upside for the government is that it will collect more revenue to help pay for the health care law. With two million more Americans expected to pay the penalty, the CBO predicted $3 billion more in collections each year — about $7 billion in 2016, and $8 billion a year thereafter.
But the new projections could also undermine a key goal of President Obama in the new health care law, which aimed to extend coverage to most Americans.
And it gave Republicans an opportunity to recite one of their favorite criticisms of the law — that President Obama is taxing middle-class Americans by penalizing them for failing to buy coverage.
Full article: http://www.washingto … bama-health-care-ta/
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