Ryan Ellis over at Americans for Tax Reform has a great, easy-to-understand breakdown of several ways that the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill raises taxes on American families. Ellis’ calculations fall into three categories: mandate penalties (individual and employer), healthcare spending account (HSA) restrictions, and denying tax cuts for medical deductions.


Of course, those are just the taxes we can see; remember, a number of other things that Americans consume will also be taxed (like medical devices over $100 – a category that includes things like breast pumps, nebulizers, and walkers), raising the price of such goods. So not only will you have fewer dollars in your pocket, the things you need to buy will be more expensive. Thanks, Congress!


The White House website states that one of the goals of health reform is to “reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government.” Unfortunately, shifting those costs to taxpayers is not the best way to achieve that end.