Health care bill will be a burden on biz

Published 11:44 am Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Your Friday editorial says health care cost will go down and the small businesses will get tax breaks but where does this money come from? The health care bill charges non-health-care-provider fees.

Drug makers would pay $2.5 billion in 2011, $3 billion from 2012 to 2016, $3.5 billion in 2017, $4.2 billion in 2018 and $2.8 billion in 2019 and thereafter.

Medical device manufacturers would pay a 2.9 percent excise tax on devices sold.

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Insurance companies would pay $8 billion in 2014, increasing to $14.3 billion in 2018, with the amount rising annually by the rate of premium growth thereafter.

These fees will be added to our insurance bills as a cost of doing business in the new USA health program. The lower 40 percent of income earners will get subsidies paid for by the middle class. Remember only the top 2 percent were going to be taxed, but the middle 58 percent will get the costs passed through to them in higher insurance bills and Democrats, and the Tribune editor will say the higher premiums are the insurance companies fault.

John Forman

Albert Lea