I work for a company that manufactures, sells and services medical devices. You may notice that often the biggest expense for any medical event isn't doctor's office visits but for diagnostics. Diagnostic instrumentation is extremely expensive to bring to market largely due to FDA hoops and requirements. You're going to feel the new taxes in two ways. You're going to pay them as part of your diagnostics expenses and I wouldn't be surprised of hospitals and laboratories won't try to hold onto aging equipment longer as replacing such with newer and more modern equipment is going to cost more. Of course using older equipment could mean you'll pay by having a reduced quality of medical care. Thanks, congress people.
Remember that poster of Bush waving with the caption, Miss Me Yet?" Every day the answer becomes a stronger YES!
We were warned!
Remember the part in the ObamaCare pitch when they said if you like your current healthcare, it won't change?
Turns out it might.
Companies are already announcing that their healthcare premium costs are going through the roof. Some are responding by firing people. Some are cutting benefits. And some are presumably eating it.
But costs they are a-rising.
A few examples from the WSJ:
-- Caterpillar said it would cost the company at least $100 million more in the first year alone.
-- Medical device maker Medtronic warned that new taxes on its products could force it to lay off a thousand workers.
-- Verizon announced to employees that it will likely have to cut healthcare benefits to offset the new costs.
So, people who like your employer-provided health insurance, get ready to pay more or get less.
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