Surprise tax hike

Remember when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of ObamaCare, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"? It's been nearly three years since President Obama signed the monstrosity into law, and we still don't know all its job-killing, market-distorting details.

That's because the mountains of regulations that will weave ObamaCare into every facet of this country's health care system are still being written. And buried in one recently written regulation is this expensive surprise: Starting 13 months from now, every insurer will be required to pay a $63 tax for every person with coverage.

The tax is scheduled to expire at the end of 2016 (we've heard that one before) and generate about $25 billion, most of which will be paid back to insurers by the Department of Health and Human Services to cover the expected huge costs of benefits for Americans with pre-existing conditions.

For the country's largest insurers and self-insured employers, this regulation adds tens of millions of dollars in costs for 2014, just as they're figuring out how to survive expected tax increases in 2013. If the Obama administration is focused on job creation, it sure has a twisted way of showing it.

Most experts expect companies and insurers to pass the per-head tax along to employees. You're welcome.

This regulation in instructive in two ways. First, it further erodes the quaint concept that health "insurance" is based on risk. Everyone will pay the same amount, whether they're old or young, a soda-chugging smoker or a champion triathlete. It is yet another means of redistributing wealth, with Washington as the expensive middle man. Second, and more importantly, this 11th-hour body blow begs the question of how many other surprise tax hikes have yet to be written into the pages of ObamaCare. This is not a recipe for recovery.