The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, includes a number of new taxes and fees for individuals and businesses throughout the country. As 2014 begins, you should be aware of some of the newer Obamacare tax provisions that have just taken effect.
In the following video, Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool's director of investment planning, looks at some of these new taxes and fees that various parties will pay. Dan notes that a 2% tax on every health plan will help the government pay for Obamacare, while a $2 fee for each policy will go to a fund for medical research. In addition, WellPoint (ELV 1.19%), UnitedHealth (UNH 1.61%), Cigna (CI), and other health insurers that take advantage of the Healthcare.gov website have to pay a 3.5% user fee. Dan notes that investors might initially fear that those three insurers, along with Aetna (AET), Humana (HUM 1.08%), and other players in the industry, will bear the brunt of these taxes and fees. But some companies have already started passing those costs on to policyholders, potentially putting you on the hook to pay them.
