Obamacare: Bad for Women and Families
Marriage Penalty. The health care takeover[i] bases health insurance subsidy thresholds on multiples of the federal poverty level, and because the poverty level for a two-person couple ($14,570) is less than twice the poverty standard for a single person ($10,830),[ii] couples who marry will see their eligibility for subsidies automatically decline when compared to two cohabiting individuals. Many may view this policy as providing perverse incentives for couples not to marry.
Another Marriage Penalty. The health care takeover raises the Medicare payroll tax by a total of $210.2 billion.[iii] However, the threshold for the higher tax stands at $200,000 for a single individual, but $250,000 for a family. Thus a married couple with wage earnings of $195,000 each will pay $1,260 more in taxes than a single person with the same salary.
Tax on Jobs Will Hurt Women and Young Workers. The health care takeover creates a new tax on jobs by forcing employers who do not provide “acceptable” coverage to pay a “fair share” tax of $2,000 per full-time employee—nearly triple the $750 tax initially proposed. Harvard Professor Kate Baicker’s analysis demonstrates that at least 5.5 million low-wage workers would be “at substantial risk of unemployment” due to new mandates on employers.[iv] What’s more, women and young adults “face the highest risk of losing their jobs under employer mandates.”
The Congressional Budget Office has also confirmed that such mandates “could reduce the hiring of low-wage workers,” and could also lead to wage stagnation as wage compensation is diverted to comply with new federal taxes and mandates.[v] At a time when unemployment stands near 26-year highs, these harmful tax increases will hurt exactly the low-wage workers that health care bill is intended to help.
Federal Funds for Abortion. The health care takeover permits federal funds to subsidize plans covering abortion, permits a multi-state health plan to offer abortion coverage, and requires citizens in states that have opted-out of elective abortion coverage in their own exchange to fund federal subsidies for plans that cover elective abortion in other states. These provisions will result in the federal government funding actions that violate decades-long precedents for federal health coverage—including that provided to Members of Congress—and that many find morally objectionable.
Rising Debt a Fiscal Time Bomb for Future Generations. The health care takeover spends $2.6 trillion in its first 10 years of full implementation—and the President’s budget proposes to address Medicare physician reimbursements through an additional $371 billion in new deficit spending not included in the legislation.[vi] Growing the problem by adding trillions more of federal spending will only increase the debt burden to be faced by future generations.
[i] Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) text available at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3590/text; reconciliation bill (H.R. 4872) text available at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h4872/text.
[ii] Department of Health and Human Services 2009 Federal Poverty Level guidelines, http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml.
[iii] Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of substitute amendment to H.R. 4872 in concert with H.R. 3590, March 20, 2010, http://jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3672.
[iv] Kate Baicker and Helen Levy, “Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment,” NBER Working Paper 13528, October 2007, http://www.nber.org/papers/w13528.pdf.
[v] Congressional Budget Office, “Effects of Changes to the Health Insurance System on Labor Markets,” July 13, 2009, http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10435/07-13-HealthCareAndLaborMarkets.pdf
[vi] President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Submission to Congress, February 2010, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/budget.pdf, Table S-7, p. 162.