President Obama’s health care law raises taxes by $1 trillion, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The individual mandate — which the CBO calls a “penalty tax,” in apparent deference to Chief Justice John Roberts — will produce $55 billion in “penalty payments by uninsured individuals,” the CBO told House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a Tuesday letter. Of course, the framers of the law didn’t design the mandate as a tax, and so it produces less revenue than any other provision in the bill.
The “additional hospital insurance tax” is the largest tax increase in Obamacare, projected to bring in $318 billion in new revenues. According to the 2010 report from the Journal of Accountancy, this tax hits “high-income tax payers” — individuals making over $125,000 a year or households making over $250,000 a year.
The health care law gets another $216 billion from the “associated effects of coverage provisions on tax revenues,” while “reinsurance and risk adjustment collections” brings in another $184 billion. Fees on certain manufacturers and insurers generate $165 billion. Another $111 billion comes from the excise tax on high-premium insurance plans.
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