Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Um, D'unh?!

I don't get why this would be "news:"

"Obamacare to Jack Up Insurance Premiums ... According to a survey from the National Business Group on Health, employers  expect their health insurance costs to increase 7%."

Hey fellas? Stop inhaling: only 7%? You wish.

And this:

"60% of those employers plan to ask workers to pay higher monthly premiums."

Also ignores reality. As we pointed out many years ago:

"Companies do not pay taxes, and they do not pay for health insurance.

In case you missed that, let me repeat: Companies – businesses – pay neither taxes nor insurance premiums.

Companies do collect (sales) taxes, and pass them on to the states in which they do business. They also include any business taxes due in the price of the product or service. They pay employees a portion of their salary, and forward the balance to the insurance carrier (and/or state government).

They do not actually pay the taxes, nor the insurance premiums
."

So this whole notion that employers are going to be asking what employees they have left to "contribute" more towards their premium is silly. And it ignores the fact that a lot of employers will be dumping either full-time employees or their group health insurance plans. Or both.

Of course, we'll continue to hear about how it's all the fault of business, but the reality is that businesses exist to make money, not to pay increasignly high labor costs (such as health insurance premiums). And now that our own Not So Vaunted Health System© (nee: ObamaCare) has been affirmed, this is just the beginning.

Kinda wish we'd read it before they passed it, no?

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