Friday, March 29, AD 2024 2:44am

ObamaCare “Fees” Letter

obamacare fees letter

 

The hits on ObamaCare keep on rolling.  I received in a letter on Saturday from my insurance carrier, see above, advising me that my family health care insurance policy would be going up close to $50.00 per month due to ObamaCare “fees”.  (I hate it when a tax is called a fee.  When I pay a fee I get something directly in return.)  These fees are the “Annual Fee on Health Insurers” and the “Transitional Reinsurance Program Contribution Fee”.  (Yeah contribution is a nice Orwellian touch.  Contributions are voluntary.)

What are these “fees”?  Jim Geraghty at National Review Online explains them to us:

Those of you who still have insurance will be paying more in premiums next year. A bunch of new fees take effect, all written into the law of Obamacare or instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

First there’s the “Annual Health Insurance Industry Fee.”

Health insurance issuers will be assessed an annual fee to fund some of the provisions of the ACA.

The total amount collected from the fee will be $8 billion in 2014 and will increase to $14.3 billion in 2018. After 2018, the amount will be determined by the annual rate of premium growth. The fee will be divided proportionately between all health insurance issuers, although for-profit insurers will pay twice the amount as not-for-profit insurers. This fee is not applicable to self-funded health plans.

Based on estimates from Oliver Wyman, a national consulting group, the fee could increase premiums by 2-2.5 percent in 2014 and by 3-4 percent in later years.

This fee will begin to be assessed in January 2014 and is permanent.

Then there is the Traditional Reinsurance Program Assessment Fee:

HHS proposes that the annual assessment will cost $63 per individual enrolled under a plan/policy in 2014. HHS will require plan administrators to submit enrollment counts by November 15, 2014. The agency will send out assessment bills by December 15, 2014. Payments will be due 30 days later.

Read the rest here.  No doubt the letters announcing these “fees” will come as a vast shock to those Obama voters who were all in favor of ObamaCare as long as someone else was paying the bill.  My heart, and my wallet, bleed for them.  Cue Lando:

 

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Mary De Voe
Sunday, November 24, AD 2013 9:37pm

Fees to pay a higher premium? (Not a penny for tribute)The only penalty that can be imposed by a just government in this situation is removal from the insurance policy. No insurance and a penalty for not adhering to a policy is double jeopardy. if it is a tax, then it is taxation without representation as one has no voice in the matter. Electing Obama is not electing his Obamacare. It is the same with Congress. An elected Congress does not constitute one’s vote, even when it is in the affirmative for something a citizen wants. It is the citizen who must choose and without penalty for not choosing.
It is bad enough for the premiums to rise, but the quality of healthcare will be dumbed down that cattle in the field will get better care.
Next will be debtor’s prison and indentured slavery.

Pat
Pat
Sunday, November 24, AD 2013 11:40pm

So.
The insurer pays the “A” “C” A fee to HHS by extracting payment from the insured. This happens because their goal is to serve your health insurance needs “through all of life’s changes”.
The last phrase is more ominous than reassuring, as it can be applied to either the insurer or the insured. It also sets the precedent of the insured paying, but doesn’t approach the changeable coverage aspects or the obscene web site cost overruns.
The phrase silk glove on an iron fist comes to mind.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:29am

Can’t we just do an en masse civil disobedience and refuse. And form mutual benefit associations

Don the Kiwi
Don the Kiwi
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 2:04am

Do these added fees cover your medical costs for maternity care Don? 😉

J.A.C.
J.A.C.
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 3:45am

IMPEACH!!!…this moron in the white house needs to go!!!

James
James
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 8:59am

Ahhhh, Communism? POTUS just loves the smell of napalm over the middle class ithe morning!

philip
philip
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 9:33am

Toga and olive leaf tiara for the king and his court. How fitting. As we fund P.P. with our “fees” all we can expect is the curtain to come down on this morbid play called Obamacircus.
Sooner than later I hope.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 10:13am

My son who is a farmer, was denied any and all affordable health insurance policies for his family because of his pre condition of “sleep apnea”. They have now been forced into the “state” insurance and in one year, that will be ruled by the Obama Care vendetta. AS they will be kicked off the state and into whatever the dictator has in store. A friend of mine who is a young widow(in her 50’s) just had her healthcare at her job raised by a 100 dollars a month with a larger co pay and less benefits. Her daughter who just had a new baby was cancelled by her company through work and now is being hit with gigantic premium increases or threat of losing her health care. And she has lost her regular docs! Every day I am getting more and more angry. Have we come so far in all of this that there is no way to turn back? I am asking this as a legitimate question. Some radio commentators make fun of anyone who is terrified over this insurance thing. If you have ever suffered a catastrophic accident or disease you know that if you don’t have the best coverage they can take your farm or business. My brother-in-law suffered a severe injury and before you could say “jack spratt ate no fat” they slapped a lien on his farm that stayed there until every penny was paid. He did have insurance but it wasn’t adequate enough for the seriousness of the accident. Due to family and friends we were able to make sure everything turned out ok. What kind of response needs to be made from the people to really turn this this around!

philip
philip
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 11:34am

Jeanne-

A: A unprecedented 15million souls march on DC to begin with. Then also a 150million soul No Income Tax pmts. until obamacare is repealed.
Good start possibly?!

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:18pm

The trick is to find a pulpit large enough to attract the numbers needed for such a revolt, without being made an example of in the meantime. It would have to be a network that’s already in place, with a good chunk of the population already involved.

Too bad there isn’t an organization whose origins predate the country by a millenium or so, and whose leaders are united in the cause of individual justice against political tyranny. That would be perfect.

philip
philip
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:28pm

WK-

Blessed JPII and the Ark church.
Standing up in the face of tyrants…and he was Bishop at that time as I recall.
The govt. threatened however Christ and His Church prevailed.

Your platform only needs to be united by this Francis of today.

tamsin
tamsin
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:42pm

Too bad there isn’t an organization whose origins predate the country by a millenium or so, and whose leaders are united in the cause of individual justice against political tyranny. That would be perfect.

Dang. The only really big organization I can think of, has leaders who are united in the cause of social justice defined as the perfect redistribution of wealth using the coercive power of the State to achieve Heaven on Earth. Even tiny little Obamacare fees are therefore a step in the right direction. A “widow’s mite” to inspire us all.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:42pm

I try mightily to remain charitable but this Obama fellow is an enigma at best. Obamacare is either a tragicomedy of errors or a ruthless attempt to impose a socialist regime no matter who or how many are harmed. My worst fears are that this administration may be a punishment for our sins, a sort of Scourge of God.
Here is an article at NRO: http://nationalreview.com/corner/364373/here-obama-administrations-brief-admits-you-wont-be-able-keep-your-employer-health
and a link from the O Admins brief: http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/uploads/caseapps/c39629e5f397e42be2f7d0021bed01c5aadaa422.pdf
There is a clear indication that the Obama Administration estimates that “a majority of group health plans will have lost their grandfather status by the end of 2013”. The quotation is from the brief filed in the case brought by Priests for Life et al. Please excuse this artless and too busy post but I want to call attention to this aspect of the matter. Happy Thanksgiving, nonetheless.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 12:48pm

Philip-

Hopefully it won’t get to where our government resembles the Soviet occupation state in Poland, because only within that contrast would the USCCB begin to resemble Blessed JPII, and even then, probably not all that accurately.

Whether Francis would be inclined to interpose is a question in all honesty; beyond that, whether he could be understood is another.

tamsin – Widow’s mite indeed, for all such will be given, or wrested, from our poverty. We will have no surplus if Emperor Barry and his Imperial Court have their way.

Mary De Voe
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 8:45pm

Perhaps 55 million aborted souls might help us if we asked them.

NTP
NTP
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 10:54pm

A law expanding individual health coverage to people with preexisting involves raising premiums? That ish cray

Pat
Pat
Monday, November 25, AD 2013 11:07pm

Dear Mary De Voe …
During the Eucharistic Prayer, when the Pastor pauses after the phrase about those who have gone before us, there’s a moment for me to remember those souls and sometimes I visualize them as a whole host in Heaven.

philip
philip
Tuesday, November 26, AD 2013 6:22am

Mary DeVoe-
Dare I say 500 TRILLION souls are praying for an end to this supreme sacrilege, the killing of the innocents.
Souls in all three Churches are united in this intention. Militant
Suffering and Heavenly Churches.

This is the battle and the prayers offered will one day be evident that they were efficacious.
As you already know, we must keep at it and trust God.

DJ Hesselius
DJ Hesselius
Tuesday, November 26, AD 2013 8:30am

“My worst fears are that this administration may be a punishment for our sins, a sort of Scourge of God.”

A few months before 9/11, a revert to the faith told me about the Divine Mercy chaplet and some prophetess somewhere in Europe. Ireland I think. Anyway, according to my acquaintance, God told this prophetess that the days of “His protection of America” are over.

I’ve always kind of wondered about that one. Certainly things have not been going well for our country.

philip
philip
Tuesday, November 26, AD 2013 9:16am

DJ-

I heard that too.
I believe her last name is Gallagher.(?)
I do believe that Justice follows Mercy.
It very well could be that the protection of Almighty God unfathomable Mercy is about to give way to His Justice.
Pray-Pray–Pray!

Jesus to the Holy women as He carried the Holy Cross: “Do not weep for me..but for your children.”

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Wednesday, November 27, AD 2013 8:07am

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Cthemfly25
Cthemfly25
Wednesday, November 27, AD 2013 6:08pm

I’m a small employer. Our insurer is an exchange participant and we were just hit with a 50% increase. In the past we paid the premiums for our employees—the math kills us. We are trying to go with a non exchange insurer but….. In addition to these fees, you will be hit with an excise tax of 40% (it might be a pass through tax on the insurer) if you have dared to act responsibly by seeking to obtain “Cadillac” coverage for your family. The exchange policies btw are distinguishable by their uniformity….government mandated crap.

This is the junk which was in the bill no one read, including the USCCB, except a few of us who were worried. The AFA is diabolical genius if anyone wants to take a broader view of what is being done. And speaking of done, I say this no longer with concern, but with simple recognition, the AFA is being defended by the progressives because it spells the death of our Constitution, the death of freedom, and in time the passing of what was a wonderfully blessed nation.

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Sunday, December 1, AD 2013 11:31pm

Too bad there isn’t an organization whose origins predate the country by a millennium or so, and whose leaders are united in the cause of individual justice against political tyranny. That would be perfect.
WK Aiken

Yeah, too bad. For at least a generation, America’s Catholic bishops have been stumping for what became Obamacare. The Abortion Party thanks them for their help in getting the Party’s supporters elected and the Party’s bill passed.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. St. John Chrysostom said the road in hell is paved with the heads of bishops.

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