2 New Obamacare Taxes Coming in 2013

[sappstuf]

1.
The Obamacare Medical Device Tax – a $20 billion tax increase: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business jobs and impacting research and development budgets, this will increase the cost of your health care – making everything from pacemakers to prosthetics more expensive.

I applaud Obama for this. People with pacemakers and prosthetics have clearly not been paying their "fair share"..

2.
The Obamacare “Special Needs Kids Tax” – a $13 billion tax increase: The 30-35 million Americans who use a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at work to pay for their family’s basic medical needs will face a new government cap of $2,500 (currently the accounts are unlimited under federal law, though employers are allowed to set a cap).
There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are several million families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. This Obamacare tax provision will limit the options available to these families.

Special needs children were tax loopholes... I'm glad Obama closed that.

[Soonerjeepman]

those little bastar#s....how dare they think they can use their special needs kids...Thank you obama!!!

[cleller]

Pretty soon medical costs will be so high we'll be forced to beg the government to control the whole thing, and take care of us as they see fit.

[yermom]

i'm not sure i get the point of either of these, but what does special needs school have to do with health care?

[Midtowner]

The medical equipment tax makes sense. Those are some very high margin products. Also, I imagine they'll have to start being a little more competitive under the new program. As far as special needs schools, that's just one group which will be affected by a cap. They're not targeted. The writer wants you to think they were targeted. There's simply no evidence for that. That said, sending your kids to a 14K/year private school when public schools by law are required to provide for 100% of your child's needs (and we're already paying taxes for that) is a luxury, not a need.

[diverdog]

those little bastar#s....how dare they think they can use their special needs kids...Thank you obama!!!

GMAFB. If it were up to the Republicans these folks would have to fund 100% of their cost out of pocket.

[diverdog]

Pretty soon medical costs will be so high we'll be forced to beg the government to control the whole thing, and take care of us as they see fit.

Cost have been rising for years. I have seen some of my clients take a 25% increase back to back to back. That was when Clinton and Bush were in office. No one would be talking about government health insurance if the health insurance companies were not increasing premiums far beyond the rate of inflation (and yes I know that is not how it works).

[Soonerjeepman]

GMAFB. If it were up to the Republicans these folks would have to fund 100% of their cost out of pocket.

not a big tech guy, so not sure what GMAFB means but coming from you sure it's not good... ;-)

First, I teach so I'm aware of the rules/regs on public ed and special ed, also my gf works with pre-school special needs students so again, I'm aware of the processes. The biggest problem is parents NOT supporting their kids when we try and give them the tools to do that.

Please give me a QUALITY link that says Rep would have special needs parents pay 100% of all cost, if not you are just throwing out what YOU deem as a truth.

[StoopTroup]

Good Morning After Facebook...

[pphilfran]

The medical equipment tax makes sense. Those are some very high margin products. Also, I imagine they'll have to start being a little more competitive under the new program. As far as special needs schools, that's just one group which will be affected by a cap. They're not targeted. The writer wants you to think they were targeted. There's simply no evidence for that. That said, sending your kids to a 14K/year private school when public schools by law are required to provide for 100% of your child's needs (and we're already paying taxes for that) is a luxury, not a need.

I am not a big fan of the medical eq revenue tax..a tax on revenue (not profit) will not cause costs to go down...and increasing the cost on everybody that makes the high end eq will not increase competition...

[KABOOKIE]

Give Me Another Freebie

[Soonerjeepman]

ah...ok, so still show me where the repub would make parents pay 100%...(not you but DD)...

[Midtowner]

I am not a big fan of the medical eq revenue tax..a tax on revenue (not profit) will not cause costs to go down...and increasing the cost on everybody that makes the high end eq will not increase competition...

The ACA costs. Someone has to pay for it. It makes sense to go after these providers as they are profiting rather handsomely off of the system.

[pphilfran]

The ACA costs. Someone has to pay for it. It makes sense to go after these providers as they are profiting rather handsomely off of the system.

They will just pass the additional taxes onto the people that buy the product....ACA might limit profits on the insurance companies but it has no limit on profits for GE and their imaging eq...

[pphilfran]

I don't want to get into a debate with you because I will probably lose...so let's just call it even...K?

[KABOOKIE]

The ACA costs. Someone has to pay for it. It makes sense to go after these providers as they are profiting rather handsomely off of the system.

Yep. The middle class. The 43% wont contribute anything other than whining.

[Skysooner]

not a big tech guy, so not sure what GMAFB means but coming from you sure it's not good... ;-)

First, I teach so I'm aware of the rules/regs on public ed and special ed, also my gf works with pre-school special needs students so again, I'm aware of the processes. The biggest problem is parents NOT supporting their kids when we try and give them the tools to do that.

Please give me a QUALITY link that says Rep would have special needs parents pay 100% of all cost, if not you are just throwing out what YOU deem as a truth.

Since I have a special needs child, I'm well aware of all of this as well. We could not have made it all of these years without the help of the early intervention in our Edmond schools. That being said, most of the work we have done has come at home. It was my wife educating herself and trying things that worked. The school basically follows what she tells them to do anymore. In a case like this, it is all about being the advocate for your child and educating yourself. The FSA is a nice benefit, but I would prefer it be used for actual health rather than paying tuition. That can be handled through other avenues if at all.

[Soonerjeepman]

Sky,

First, it's great you do that. Unfortunately there are a lot of parents out there that don't. I used the "daycare" exp for my kids while they were in ele school. I know it's different than having a special needs child BUT without that my ex and I would have been hard pressed to spend that money. We spent over 5K on just after school care. I have a small idea on what costs are for special needs students and can't imagine having no help, in any form. I guess I'm open to letting the PARENTS decide how to use that money, NOT THE GOVERNMENT.

I also see the complete waste and abuse of welfare and the "programs" that are out there. When it comes to special needs kids though I think there needs to be help even if that is in the form of tax shelter money for expenses.

BUT DD said the pubs would have you spend 100% of cost....I want to SEE that. ON this forum the libs are always wanting certified facts...I agree, so I want to see that with his statement as well.

[Skysooner]

Sky,

First, it's great you do that. Unfortunately there are a lot of parents out there that don't. I used the "daycare" exp for my kids while they were in ele school. I know it's different than having a special needs child BUT without that my ex and I would have been hard pressed to spend that money. We spent over 5K on just after school care. I have a small idea on what costs are for special needs students and can't imagine having no help, in any form. I guess I'm open to letting the PARENTS decide how to use that money, NOT THE GOVERNMENT.

I also see the complete waste and abuse of welfare and the "programs" that are out there. When it comes to special needs kids though I think there needs to be help even if that is in the form of tax shelter money for expenses.

BUT DD said the pubs would have you spend 100% of cost....I want to SEE that. ON this forum the libs are always wanting certified facts...I agree, so I want to see that with his statement as well.

We used that same credit and at the time it made a huge difference. I also agree that the parents need to decide, and there is so much abuse in welfare and even in some special needs programs. I'm all for common sense effective help. I just know that there are so many charlatans out there that take the latest and greatest thing and pass it off as the end-all/be-all solution for their kids becoming "normal". There are so many parents much worse off than we are in terms of the full-time care, special equipment, etc. needed. Our child is now 16 and the "manager" of his football team. He is popular and while physically a little awkward is pretty normal in most ways.

I haven't seen that with Republicans either. Admittedly I haven't looked for it, but I'm fairly well educated on what is going on and I have never seen even a hint of this.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

The medical equipment tax makes sense. Those are some very high margin products. Also, I imagine they'll have to start being a little more competitive under the new program. As far as special needs schools, that's just one group which will be affected by a cap. They're not targeted. The writer wants you to think they were targeted. There's simply no evidence for that. That said, sending your kids to a 14K/year private school when public schools by law are required to provide for 100% of your child's needs (and we're already paying taxes for that) is a luxury, not a need.

So, educate us. What are the margins on these products? You sound like an insider. Of course you sound like an insider on everything.

It seems a little circular to me. You raise taxes on pacemakers which the manufacturer passes along to the consumer, which happens to be Medicare in most instances.

[Soonerjeepman]

Sky,
that is awesome for your boy! Hope things work out well for y'all.

Yes COMMON sense and unfortunately human nature as it is, folks will take adv of people in "desperate" situations. I feel for those parents and thank God everyday my kids do not have any special needs issues. I don't know the answer but I don't think putting a limit on the FSA is a good idea.