Promises, Promises

New tax on uninsured to hit some in middle class hard

When President Barack Obama first campaigned for office, he promised he would not raise taxes on middle class families—which he defines as those making less than $250,000 a year. Turns out he wasn’t telling the truth. Beginning in 2014, citizens will be required to carry health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or face a “tax” for the privilege of not doing so.

And that will mean a tax increase on about 6 million Americans who do not have health insurance through their employer or via an individual plan.

A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office says that 80 percent of those 6 million make less than $60,000 a year.

How much more will they pay? The CBO says the average penalty will be $1,200.’

The Obama administration doesn’t seem to mind, though.

The CBO analysis “doesn’t change the basic fact that the individual responsibility policy will only affect people who can afford health care but choose not to buy it. We’re no longer going to subsidize the care of those who can afford to buy insurance but make a choice not to buy it,” said Erin Shields Britt of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Actually, it affects a lot of people the administration assumes are shirking their responsibilities. That assumption doesn’t translate into fact.

Times are tough. A recent survey from the American Payroll Association found two-thirds of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Private health insurance—which can cost thousands of dollars a year—is simply not an option for many of these people. A tax increase—and that’s what the administration and the Supreme Court decided this penalty is—isn’t going to help, either.

That’s the problem with one-size-fits-all programs. They may work for the majority, but the people they leave behind are flesh and blood, too.

So what about that promise of no new taxes on the middle class?

Seems it has been revised.