Under the ACA their profits are capped, you do realize, right?
If they earn over the profit limit they have limited choices: refunds or tossing money into the subsidy fund.
Without that law, sure they'd do elsewise but subsidy funding will cost them less in manhours to administer, so should be more frequent although being new this year - refunds were the only option last year. So there's no historic precedent yet.
Profits are capped by the 80/20 rule. Their profits are guaranteed is my point (i.e. their profits will not be lower than pre-ACA, by provisions in the ACA), hence it doesn't make any sense to say they're paying subsidies. At best, they'd be taking more then paying the extra out (this turns out to not be the case).
How The Affordable Care Act Pays For Insurance Subsidies : Shots - Health News : NPR
Dentist Aaron McLemore ... makes more than $100,000 a year ...A new policy from the exchange will more than double his monthly premium and nearly double his yearly out-of-pocket maximum.His higher costs aren't subsidizing lower-income policyholders, whose subsidy has already been paid by the government. But he is providing a subsidy in another way: The Affordable Care Act requires him to buy a policy with features he doesn't need.
In other words, the insurance co is not taking extra money from Dentist Aaron and giving it to sick, poor man Bob. The insurance co is keeping extra from Aaron to compensate for poor man Bob's premium payments not covering the cost of Bob's healthcare. If the extra premium money from people like Dentist Aaron isn't enough to compensate for all of the poor Bobs, and the insurance co's might see lower profits, the ACA lets them raise premiums, further putting the screws to Dentist Aaron, who is a business owner and employer.
Dentist Aaron is not a rich man - his yearly income ought to be just enough to support a family of 4 in traditional American middle class lifestyle formerly enjoyed by union factory workers in the 80's.
So if you're a low-income person getting a tax credit from the U.S. Treasury to subsidize your health care, a big chunk of that credit is coming from taxes paid by the well-off. ... "Those families with incomes above $250,000 a year will now have to pay more in Medicare payroll taxes."
about half the costs are offset by projected savings in Medicare payments to insurers and hospitals. Another quarter is offset by added taxes on medical-device makers and drug companies.
So, who is the government getting money from to pay the subsidies then?
Looks to me like sucessful business owners/entrepreneurs get fucked. Maybe a guy is comfortable with $250k earnings, but also he is likely an employer. I wonder, that $250k is the owner's take home income after paying all business expenses, including payroll (and soon healthcare for employees), or do the business expense deductions run out short of that point, meaning the owner gets taxed on income he doesn't get to keep as it must be spent on overhead. Even in the best case scenario, it's still money that could have been reinvested in the business.
Is this extra tax progressive so that the parasite Wall St. CEO getting huge bonuses out of tax payer bailouts pays higher tax than the business owner/employer earning $250k? I doubt it.
