Obama Rolls Out a New Raft of Taxes to Pay for the Uninsured

I guess this is supposed to be a way to pay for the ramp up in spending to cover that $1.2 trillion over 10 years that it will cost to cover uninsured people. I would be willing to bet you $59 billion dollars that they will not get anywhere near $59 billion from these tax rip-offs.

The White House on Monday proposed an additional $59 billion in changes to the tax code that would help pay for the cost of efforts to cover the more than 40 million Americans without health insurance, including a substantial tightening of estate and gift tax rules.

They included to "rip-off-the-charities" tax in the mix. I'm sure America's Second Harvest and the United Way get to let people starve so that people can get their free health insurance. My money is on the Dems fighting this to the death because it will do far more harm then good to left leaning non-profits and charities.

The centerpiece of the tax proposals -- a limit on charitable deductions for taxpayers in the top two income brackets -- was rolled out earlier this year and remains in the proposal.

The also stuck in a "Kill-off-Humana" tax as well:

The most significant Medicare provision would put in place vast reductions in payments to private insurers through the Medicare Advantage program, creating a competitive bidding system to make Medicare Advantage payments more comparable to payments through the government's traditional Medicare fee-for-service program. That provision is slated to save $175 billion over 10 years.

Humana (which I have shorted in the past) gets a majority of their income from Medicare Advantage. I'm pretty sure that any reduction in payments will hit them pretty hard. I guess the Medicare Advantage companies could fight back by colluding on the bidding process in order for them to keep their margins level. That is if the government isn't trying to low ball the bidding process to "keep things fair."