12 Days of Obamacare Surprises: Increased Employer Penalties
Alyene Senger /
Not all surprises are good. When it comes to Obamacare, the original projections are turning into unfortunately different realities. For the next four days, Heritage is going to highlight one of the various changes in Obamacare projections (e.g., cost, enrollment, etc.) from when the law first passed until now.
In 2014, Obamacare requires all businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to provide government-approved health coverage for their workers or pay a $2,000 penalty for each employee after the first 30 workers.
In 2010, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that total penalties paid by employers from 2010–2019 would equal $52 billion.
In 2012, the CBO updated its estimate for penalties paid by employers from 2013–2022 to total $106 billion.
Surprise: Employers are now estimated to pay more than twice the amount in penalties compared to the original estimate. Too bad employers won’t be able to re-gift Obamacare’s mandate.
12 Days of Obamacare Surprises:
8. More cuts to Medicare…
7. Loss of employer-sponsored insurance…
6. A 50/50 split on enrollment estimates…
5. More uninsured Americans…
4. Increased exchange subsidies…
3. Big tax increases…
2. The small business tax credit…
1. And the individual mandate.