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By the Numbers: A Look at the Democrats’ Health Care Law

June 27, 2012 — The Prescription Pad   
Health Care Costs and Impact on Americans
  • $1,200:  Increase in health care premiums for an average American family in the year following enactment of the Democrats’ health care law.
  • 13 percent:  Premium increase, in 2016, for individuals and families who buy coverage on their own – compared to if the law hadn’t been enacted at all.
  • $118 billion:  Additional financial burden saddled onto state budgets from ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion.
  • 200 percent:  National debt as a percentage of GDP in 2037 despite promise of cost-control from ObamaCare advocates.
  • $70 billion:  Size of ObamaCare budget gimmick resulting from the failed CLASS program.
  • 1,019,810:  Number of Americans that are at risk of losing their plan, because the plan was denied a waiver from ObamaCare.

Impact on Employers

  • $422.4 billion:  Amount that 71 Fortune 100 companies could save by eliminating employer-sponsored health plans and instead paying the $2,000 employer mandate penalty from 2014-2023.
  • $28.6 billion:  Amount that 71 Fortune 100 companies could save by eliminating employer-sponsored health plans and instead paying the $2,000 employer mandate penalty in 2014 alone.
  • 4 million to 20 million to 65 million:  Number of people in the employer system estimated to lose insurance as a result of ObamaCare, based on two separate analyses provided by CBO and Deloitte.
  • 800,000:  The amount of workers the labor force would be reduced by in 2021, as a result of ObamaCare.

Taxes

  • 22:  Number of new tax increases in the Democrats’ health care law as originally enacted – a dozen of which violate the President’s pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
  • $569.2 billion:  Gross tax increase over 10 years resulting from the Democrats’ health law, as estimated at the time of enactment.  
  • $1 million:  Amount of money IRS spent to send out 4 million postcards to small business owners touting their “eligibility” for the Small Business Tax Credit even though IRS knew that many of them would not qualify because of the strict eligibility criteria.
    • 170,000:  Number of small businesses that claimed the credit in 2010, or less than five percent.
    • 1,278: Number of employees that the IRS reported to TIGTA that it needs in FY12 alone to implement the Democrats’ health care law.

Why Full Repeal is Still Necessary

  • 9:  Number of provisions that House Republicans passed, and that President Obama has signed into law, that either repeal or defund portions of the law, resulting in more than $52 billion being taken out of ObamaCare.
  • $1.8 trillion:  Amount of money the Democrats’ health care law is expected to cost over the next 10 years – nearly double the original estimate.
  • 1311(h): Section of ObamaCare that empowers Washington bureaucrats to decide which doctors and providers can be covered by your health care plan.
  • 12,000:  Approximate number of pages of ObamaCare regulations issued by the Administration.

Seniors

  • 9 in 10:  Number of seniors with retiree benefits who will lose their retiree prescription drug coverage through their employer under the Democrats’ health care law.
  • Approximately 8 in 10:  Estimated number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D that are paying a higher premium so that 15 percent of beneficiaries can benefit from the change to the donut hole.

Special Interest Spending

  • $3.8 billion: Amount of money available to the Obama Administration to hand out in cut-rate loans, primarily to political allies, to form insurance cooperatives, many of whom do not appear eligible under the law.
  • $0:  Amount of money left in the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP), which was supposed to be in place through 2014, but has already stopped paying new claims after spending $5 billion.
    •  About half of the entities receiving the subsidies are politically favored friends – unions and state and local governments.
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