Thursday, February 28, 2013

Subway and Home Depot Would Not Exist Under Current Rules

Subway and Home Depot would not exist under current Administration. Sad story. What does it say for the future? Not much!

There is more on the story at: http://freebeacon.com/subway-founder-subway-would-not-exist-if-started-today-due-to-government-regulations/

Conservative Tom

8 comments:

  1. Fact-checking…

    Either this guy does not know the law, or he is just blowing smoke. There is NO employer mandate under the ACA for ANY firm that employs less than 50 workers. This would include a start-up Subway restaurant. That is 96% of all firms in the U.S. (5.8 million of 6 million). Small employers with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees and average annual wages of less than $50,000 that purchase health insurance for employees are eligible for the tax credit (a total of $40 billion over the next 10 years. Before you tell me my numbers are "all wrong," go check it yourself.

    If this guy wants to complain about the cost of health care, he should be talking about how the for-profit insurance companies have been ripping off companies, large and small. Over the past decade, average annual family premiums for workers at small firms increased by 123 percent, from $5,700 in 1999 to $12,700 in 2009. This was BEFORE Obamacare even existed! A small company pays 18% more for the SAME policy as a large company, because they don't have the bargaining power. The ACA exchanges will help them buy insurance at lower cost.

    --David

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  2. The problem with starting a business today is not limited to ObamaCrapCare. When you start a business you have to sign up with your city, state, county, township to register your business. Then you need to pay city, state taxes. Pay state and Federal unemployment after signing up for unemployment. You have regulations by OSHA, federal, state and local food regulators. EPA gets into the mix. And the list goes on.

    The point of the article is that we are too overregulated and starting a business is very tough and significantly harder than it was 50 years ago.

    However, your points about ObamaCrapCare and the exchanges are true in that employers under 50 do not have the "penalty" and that employees can get subsidies. However, the costs of ObamaCrapCare are going to skyrocket health care and not decrease it.

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  3. The article states, "Deluca said the number one issue facing Subway franchisee owners is how Obamacare will impact their expenses, noting any increase in costs will be passed along to the consumer through higher prices."

    It is as if he (and you) never noticed that the cost of health care for small employers has more than doubled over the last 10 years at the hands of the for-profit insurance companies. Obamacare will lower these costs for small business through the exchanges, because they gain the bargaining power of joining a larger pool. The more people you can bring to the table, the more bargaining power you have with the insurance companies, which explains why today small businesses pay 18% more money for the same policy as the large business.

    Also, some with less than 25 employees will get tax credits to further defray the cost of the insurance. Today, they are entirely on their own.

    --David

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  4. David, David, David:
    Employers are very aware of the costs of healthcare, but ObamaCrapCare will only increase that cost for all of us. Take a franchisee with one store and 12 people. He will not be subjected to ObamaCrapCare due to his size. He can tell his people to go to the exchanges and get their coverage there.

    These 12 along with 20-80 million other uninsured people will then go to the exchanges to get their coverage which the IRS has said the basic plan will cost a family of five nearly 20,000 per year!

    The CBO has increased the estimated cost of ObamaCrapCare. It now says that the cost will be three times the cost of its initial costs. We could never understand how the CBO could evaluate the cost of a program where authorizing legislation allowed government to spend "whatever is needed" after the first year of ObamaCrapCare.

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  5. The employer with 12 employees has two options. He can take advantage of the exchanges and tax credits under the ACA to insure his employees at a lower cost than he could prior to ACA for the reasons I stated: (1) joining a larger pool to gain bargaining leverage and (2) the tax credit. But, even in the case you describe where the employees get no employer healthcare program, they can still buy insurance through the exchanges without fear of getting rejected for pre-existing conditions or having their rates jacked up because of current health problems. And those with health issues will pay MUCH lower premiums by purchasing through exchanges than trying to deal with the for-profit health insurance companies as an individual -- their only option prior to ACA. You know that, so stop playing dumb.

    Now, for the $20,000 for the family of 5, all you have to do is plot the trajectory of health care premiums for the 10 years BEFORE Obamacare and assume (guaranteed assumption) that the for-profit health insurance companies will continue to jack-up their premiums at a much higher rate than inflation, and, voila, you will get right there to the $20,000 level. In fact, you even get there if you simply assume that Obamacare will force them to LOWER their premium increases to an annual rate of 15%, which is well below what they were doing before Obamacare was enacted. This is largely due to the "10% rule" which forces them to justify any annual increase above 10%.

    Fact-checking CBO estimates of cost of ACA…

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/no-the-cbo-hasnt-doubled-its-cost-estimate-for-health-care-reform/2011/08/25/gIQAZj7FPS_blog.html

    Also, since you now like to quote CBO, I will remind you that the letter from CBO to Boehner states that repealing the ACA would INCREASE the federal budget deficit by $109 billion over 10 years.

    http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43471

    --David

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  6. More on the IRS $20,000 for family of 5…

    The for-profit insurance companies increased the family premium from $5,700 in 1999 to $12,700 in 2009. If they increased at the same rate from 2010 to 2020, guess what it would be by then? Try $29,210!

    Compared to plodding along with the status-quo, the IRS $20,000 under Obamacare looks pretty good. From the consumer's point of view, this lower premium will come from the "10% rule" in combination with the subsidies for low- and middle-income families. For example (below), the family with $89,000 income (in 2011 dollars), would only pay $8,455 in premiums, not $20,000.

    "Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), individuals who purchase insurance after January 1, 2014 through an Exchange will be eligible for subsidies for health insurance premiums and cost-sharing if their income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) -- $89,000 for a family of four in 2011. FPL amounts are updated annually to reflect inflation. Individuals who get insurance through their employer can get subsidized coverage in an Exchange if their premiums are unaffordable (more than 9.5 percent of their household income) or the plan is inadequate (pays less than 60 percent of the cost of covered benefits).

    The ACA provides two forms of subsidies to help pay for health insurance. First, a monthly premium assistance tax credit will lower the premium amount an individual or family must pay. Second, cost-sharing assistance will limit a person's maximum out-of-pocket costs, and for some it will also reduce other cost-sharing requirements (i.e., deductibles, coinsurance, co-payments)."

    http://101.communitycatalyst.org/aca_provisions/subsidies

    --David

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  7. Who is going to pay for these subsidies? You are! Taxes must go up to pay for all of these benefits.

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  8. I am? Ha! Do you seriously think this Congress is going to raise taxes? Didn't they all just happily agree to extend the Bush tax cuts for 99.5%? Any increase in tax rates is impossible in the foreseeable future. That is why we have gridlock. Listen to Boehner and McConnell on this subject. Do you want to put a bet on this with a time-frame? Nah, didn't think so.

    There are revenue streams built into the ACA that will finance the subsidies. That is why the CBO estimates that repealing ACA would actually increase the federal deficit (see letter to Boehner for the numbers).

    --David

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