Senate Health Care Bill: $370+ Billion Tax Hike

The Joint Committee on Taxation just released its analysis of the tax provisions in Reid’s Health Care Bill. It estimates a total of just over $370 billion in higher taxes. Its report is below:

Tax Provisions

Among the bigger items are a tax on medical devices ($19 billion), a tax on insurance providers ($60 billion.) Supporters of the legislation can pretend these taxes will be paid by the apparently-now-evil medical device companies and the already-known-as-evil insurance companies. Of course these taxes will simply be passed onto consumers, making medical devices and insurance a bit more expensive than it otherwise would have been.

Two other large tax hikes fall directly on citizens. The first would limit the amount of medical expenses people can deduct from their taxes, raising just over $15 billion. Far bigger is an increase in the Medicare payroll tax by over $50 billion.

Let’s not forget that taxes are already slatted to go up after next year by several hundred billion dollars. These plans may not be the best way to “jump start” the economy.