The Affordable Care Act Costs and What It Meant for Business and Individuals

Newtown Square, PA -- (SBWire) -- 02/21/2017 --A little known fact about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is shocking to many Americans. In order to ensure the changes worked, over twenty new taxes were implemented for individuals and businesses.

Many do not realize that under the ACA there are over twenty different new taxes levied on companies and individuals that have the potential to cost the citizens over $500 billion by the year 2023. Some of the new taxes are tax increases, but some are tax credits. Oddly, some of the new taxes do not appear to be linked to health insurance in any way.

Without any changes to the ACA, or its repeal and replacement, one of the biggest taxes relates to investment income — a surtax on investment income. This tax went into effect January 2013 and amounts to a 3.8 percent tax on investment income earned by Americans making at least $250,000 a year. This particular tax could net the government $123 billion within a decade.

Currently, Americans struggling with enormous medical costs are allowed a deduction to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income. This is another new tax, brought into law in 2013, that imposes a threshold of 10 percent of adjusted gross income. This change would create $15.2 billion in new revenue for the government.

Another new tax passed into law in 2013 was an additional 9 percent Medicare tax. It applies to wages that are over $250,000 for married individuals and $200,000 for all other taxpayers. The government hopes to generate at least $86 billion in revenue from this change.

In January 2014, an individual mandate excise tax went into place. In 2014, Americans who did not buy insurance were taxed one percent of their adjusted gross income. That tax doubled in 2015. It was projected that this tax would earn the government roughly $65 million.

Without any changes to the ACA, such as a repeal or partial replacement of some elements, January 2018 will bring in another excise tax on comprehensive health insurance plans. A 40 percent hike on premium, top-of-the-line health insurance plans will commence. The plan was to sell individual premium coverage for $10,200 and family plans for $27,500, prices that some individuals would be able to afford.

The ACA came with a very high price tag for Americans. Even though it was allegedly designed to make sure everyone had access to health care, there are reports that between 29 to 31 million individuals were are not insured under ACA.

What is next? What will replace the ACA? Or will anything replace it? For now, the nation waits to see what happens.

Media Relations Contact

Jason Bland
http://www.benepath.com/

View this press release online at: http://rwire.com/773997