"Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for ...subsidized health insurance through the Exchanges will be calculated using a household’s Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI).
Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) includes Wages, Taxable interest, Taxable amount of pensions, annuity or IRA distributions, some Social Security benefits, Business income, Capital gains, Ordinary dividends, Alimony received, Real estate rental income, etc...
Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) deducts 401(k) and 403(b) savings, Certain self-employed expenses, Student loan interest, Educator expenses, IRA deductions, Moving expenses, Penalty on early withdrawal of savings, Alimony paid, Domestic production activities, etc...
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthcare/MAGI_summary13.pdf
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According to Kaiser's Family Foundation's Subsidiy Calculator, an average US family of four making $88,000 MAGI, would not recieve an Obamacare subsidy for a Silver plan costing $8,290 per year.
http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/
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If both parents are over 50 years old, contributing the maximum $6,500 each to a traditional IRA would lower taxable compensation for the above family making $88,000 by $13,000, leaving a MAGI of $75,000, which would create an Obamacare subsidy of $1,165 per year.
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If the $13,000 IRA contributions are not taxed at a hypothetical 25% Federal income tax rate, the Federal government would have to pay out $1,165 plus lose $3,250 in taxes that otherwise would have been recieved.
$1,165 + $3,250 = $4,415 net loss to Federal tax revenues.
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If 20 million households do the same thing to qualify for Obamacare subsidies, the Federal government could lose about $88,300,000,000 in tax revenues by the end of 2013's tax season.
Hence politicos through the mechanism of government, short $88,300,000,000 due to their own notional proposition of mandating the organization of health insurance/health-care, would do what to replace the $88,300,000,000?
ReplyDelete"The fundamental principle of socialism is that it is appropriate to use force to organize society, to take from some and give to others. The government has nothing to give. The government is simply a mechanism which has the power to take from some to give to others. It is a way in which some people can spend other peoples' money for the benefit of a third party - and not so incidentally themselves".
- The Invisible Hand in Economics and Politics, Milton Friedman, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1981, p11.