Patterico's Pontifications

5/28/2014

Holiday News Dump

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:37 am



Here’s the news they dumped on you this past holiday weekend while you were grilling and remembering:

Many employers had thought they could shift health costs to the government by sending their employees to a health insurance exchange with a tax-free contribution of cash to help pay premiums, but the Obama administration has squelched the idea in a new ruling. Such arrangements do not satisfy the health care law, the administration said, and employers may be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual marketplace.

The ruling this month, by the Internal Revenue Service, blocks any wholesale move by employers to dump employees into the exchanges.

Sounds good, right? If they like their doctor they can keep them! Not so much:

Andrew R. Biebl, a tax partner at CliftonLarsonAllen, a large accounting firm based in Minneapolis, said the ruling could disrupt arrangements used in many industries.

“For decades,” Mr. Biebl said, “employers have been assisting employees by reimbursing them for health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The new federal ruling eliminates many of those arrangements by imposing an unusually punitive penalty.”

Just another way ObamaCare “benefits” the public, by putting the giant and oppressive thumb of the federal government on private arrangements.

37 Responses to “Holiday News Dump”

  1. Chaos, its what you voted for.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  2. “We’re the government and we’re here to help!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. I see many, many, many more part time employees on the horizon.

    Jim (145e10)

  4. They are doing absolutely everything possible that they can to disrupt and force healthcare into single payer before they are kicked out of office.

    elissa (550033)

  5. Does that law really impose such a penalty, or is the IRS making it up?

    pst314 (ae6bd1)

  6. Probably completely unrelated to deterring businesses from terminating health plans and dumping multitudes of employees onto exchanges around the time of midterm elections.

    Gotta be pure coincidence, especially reaching back to 1990s HIPAA law.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  7. pst, of course they’re just ‘making it up’….
    this is the natural result of Congress allowing the Apparat unfettered rule-making authority.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  8. so, the big question is: do you sell your company, or just close it down?

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  9. this seems to me to be less about stopping employers from dumping people into the squalid filthy recesses of obamacare

    and more about making sure they can’t do it without paying lots of taxes

    my guess is if you dump said employee but withhold taxes on what you give them to pay for the obamacare you won’t get fined

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  10. That must be right, happyfeet. O/w I can’t figure out how this benefits Obama. Whatever happens, people are going to be angry before the midterms.

    Patricia (be0117)

  11. My company health plans are undergoing some, uh, changes for the 2015 sign up period and I am angry though unsurprised. I agree with Patricia that there are going to be lots of angry people before midterms.

    elissa (550033)

  12. Hell, there are lots of angry people now, it can only get worse for Barry by the midterms.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  13. well, since Bam-Bam never has to stand for election again, he no longer has to consider any such effect his actions might have.

    therefore, he is free to do as much damage to the economy & our society at large as he can between now & January 2017.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  14. “I agree with Patricia that there are going to be lots of angry people before midterms.”

    We might even see some more unexpected delays in implementation to give angry voters consumers more time to react to changes caused by the ACA!

    Good times, good times.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  15. I agree with daleyrocks #6. This discourages the single-payer system Obama and the Democrats want, but they also don’t want to undermine the employer health-care system before the 2014 midterm elections. This rule is designed to force employers to continue their health care plans until November 2014 — because Obama wants to do everything he can to win employees’ votes so the Democrats can keep control of the Senate.

    David (8c79bc)

  16. I knew Obamacare would be a disaster for me, and oh was I right. My premiums nearly doubled, my care is not as good and the deductibles make my insurance like having no insurance. I can’t wait for all the union dolts who cheered Obamacare to suffer the pain of the “Cadillac Tax.” I hear that is coming. Share my pain!

    Bill (3be12c)

  17. I fell as though I live in a make-believe country. (taps heels together “there’s no place like, home, there’s no place like…)

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  18. “Fell”? is this a freudian slip?

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  19. Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 5/28/2014 @ 9:49 am

    O/w I can’t figure out how this benefits Obama.

    He’s trying to save Obamacare from economic collapse.

    He doesn’t want people to buy individual insurance.

    If the company pays for it, it’s not counted as income.

    If the company changes their plan, they might be angry at the company, even if they know costs went up.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  20. No where have I read anything about the impact of this ruling on dependent insurance. Companies can’t dump their employees into the exchanges, but couldn’t they do so to their employees’ dependents?

    KathyP (d908b2)

  21. I agree with daleyrocks #6. This discourages the single-payer system Obama and the Democrats want, but they also don’t want to undermine the employer health-care system before the 2014 midterm elections. This rule is designed to force employers to continue their health care plans until November 2014 — because Obama wants to do everything he can to win employees’ votes so the Democrats can keep control of the Senate.

    If voters don’t know by now that the reason for all the delays in 404Care were done to hide the real problems with the program, I doubt they’re curious enough to do any research on it between now and November. If they get their news from the make believe media, they’ll never find out.

    Hadoop (f7d5ba)

  22. I hear the fine grows to $36,600 a year per employee in a leap year.

    DejectedHead (a094a6)

  23. If only that was the only economy killing regulation they dumped on us while they thought nobody was looking.

    White House Quietly Releases Regulatory Agenda on Holiday Weekend

    Steve57 (abdd77)

  24. and it appears we are arming at least some of the fighters in Syria, even if Bam-Bam says we’re not.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-28/someone-lying-obama-says-not-arming-syrian-rebels-yet-syrian-rebels-disagree

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  25. Obama is not saying we are not arming the fighters in Syria. He’s just not acknowledging it.

    It’s is “secret” because his advisers have probably told him it is not legal unless it has been approved by the United Nations Security Council, or something.

    And Russia and China would veto a Security Council resolution authorizing it.

    He’s using the CIA because anything not legal under international law is done by the CIA.

    Well, they could do it even under that sort of interpretation if they recognized an alternative Syrian government but they are not quite ready for that.

    I need to check this out. What has the UN said about arms? To what extent has a new government been “recognized” by the State Department?

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  26. IMRA Weekly Commentary: Respecting The Palestinians Means Raising The Bar From The Gutter Weekly Commentary: Respecting The Palestinians Means Raising The Bar From The Gutter

    …this policy of not requiring the Palestinians to meet the most basic standards of behavior lulls them into doing just that: not meeting the most basic standards of behavior.

    And while the world may not seem to care about the behavior of the Palestinians, the Israeli street – and more importantly the actual key Israeli decision makers, care very much about the behavior of the Palestinians.

    The ongoing failure of the Palestinians to meet the most basic standards of behavior is what makes all the grandiose schemes for a sovereign Palestinian state non-starters.

    So a word of advice to all those who lower the bar for the Palestinians to the gutter: You aren’t part of the solution. You are part of the
    Palestinian’s problem.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  27. the most basic problem is that there is no such thing as a “palestinian”…

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  28. Who selected which groups would receive the funding

    http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19874

    Maarouf, has pointed out in the past, he doesn’t mind working with the Nusra Front on occasion,

    narciso (3fec35)

  29. You guys just haven’t figured it out yet. The goal of Obamacare is to destroy the small business community because that’s where funding for the opposition comes from. And don’t let the trolls change the subject.

    Glenn (647d76)

  30. Comment by pst314 (ae6bd1) — 5/28/2014 @ 8:22 am

    As said, is this ruling an IRS decision that can be overruled, rather than really in the law?
    Of course, if no one is willing to try to overrule it, then it doesn’t make much of a difference.

    A second question, while we are at it, if anyone knows. I have heard two different things about “going out of network” under ObamaCare, one, that you don’t get anything in reimbursement; and two, that you can after meeting the deductible for out of network, which is twice the deductible for in network.
    The latter I heard for the first time today, and I’m not sure if it was a reputable source or a disinformation plant.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  31. Comment by MD in Philly (f9371b) — 5/28/2014 @ 6:43 pm

    A second question, while we are at it, if anyone knows. I have heard two different things about “going out of network” under ObamaCare, one, that you don’t get anything in reimbursement; and two, that you can after meeting the deductible for out of network, which is twice the deductible for in network.

    There’s no general rule; it depends on the particular insurance policy.

    Some states have only EPO (Exclusive Provider Organizations) in all the policies listing on their exchanges. Nothing at all ever will be paid for using other doctors and hospitals and they won’t even count toward the deductible.

    In other places, some PPO (Preferred Provider Organization policies are available, and they can have any rules they want.

    In either case there may be some exceptions for emergencies.

    The competitive environment set up by Obamacare pushes insurance companies toward offering policies with narrow networks, and exclusive ones. Also high deductibles.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  32. Thanks, Sammy

    OT, Tolerance:
    Jim-youre lucky we are not more vengeful-you nasty religious bigots deserve to pay with blood-but we are kind and will not take blood-we will just punish you under teh law

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  33. Sorry, I hit the wrong thing
    OT, Tolerance:
    Jim-youre lucky we are not more vengeful-you nasty religious bigots deserve to pay with blood-but we are kind and will not take blood-we will just punish you under teh law
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/05/pro-gay-marriage-professor-under-fire-from-gay-marriage-speech-police.php

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  34. 29. You guys just haven’t figured it out yet. The goal of Obamacare is to destroy the small business community because that’s where funding for the opposition comes from…

    Comment by Glenn (647d76) — 5/28/2014 @ 6:30 pm

    No, we’ve figured it out. At least many of us. In fact, we’re one step ahead. The goal of just about everything Obama does, including Obamacare, isn’t just to defund the opposition, but to defund the opposition by forcing it to fund democratic constituencies. Such as unions. In particular public employee unions. Who use their members’ dues to elect democrats and lobby for more government.

    You know, the kind that will be greatly strengthened as the IRS, HHS, and a bazillion other agencies hire thousands of new dues-paying members to assault Americans.

    Steve57 (abdd77)

  35. 9. http://www.publiusforum.com/2014/05/27/new-irs-obamacare-rule-guarantees-massive-job-loss/

    I wonder how many companies are just going to reincorporate and wash away health plans immaculately.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  36. Sorry the last link via Larwyn shoulda been ’bout IRS going after frequent flyer miles and hotel reward programs as income.

    Reports of investment bank trading income forecasts down 25%, yada, yada, might just have the Treasury spooked.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)


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