Five Things We Learned Only After ObamaCare Passed That We Should Have Been Told Beforehand

The Examiner takes a look at five nasty surprises in ObamaCare:

Despite all of Obama's promises and talking points, Obamacare as passed by Congress does not require insurers to cover children with expensive pre-existing medical conditions.

Insurers immediately pinkie swore they would offer coverage for children with preexisting conditions. Bear in min this is after Obama and assorted Democrats spent the better part of a year trashing insurance companies as blood sucking corporations making a mint off the misery of the sick.

State governments discovered that they are no longer just required to guarantee payment for indigent patients' care under Medicaid. Obamacare changes Medicaid law so that now states must also guarantee treatment to the poor.

Many doctors refuse to see Medicaid patients period because their reimbursement for services isso low, they often cannot cover costs. Cash strapped states often delay reimbursements for months or years. Now ObamaCare is requiring expansion.

No wonder eighteen states and counting have filed suit.

Thanks to the "Cornhusker Kickback" -- the special Nebraska provision that was extended to every state in the final version of the bill -- the federal taxpayer is on the hook for 90 percent of the new patients' expenses.

Those projections about ObamaCare reducing the deficit? Dream on.

Douglas Shulman, commissioner for the Internal Revenue Service, announced this week at the National Press Club that Obamacare means he can take your tax refund from you. Obamacare requires Americans to purchase insurance, but contains no serious enforcement mechanisms.

So, Shulman said, the IRS will collect penalties from those who fail to purchase "qualified" insurance by confiscating the interest-free loans that taxpayers make to the government throughout the year through employment withholding.

The insurance mandate is a tax enforceable by the IRS. Is that not a comforting thought?

The ski-tourism industry suddenly realizes that it is endangered by Obamacare. Ski resorts must now provide health care or else pay a fine for each employee who works more than 120 days out of the year -- and many of their employees do.

The bill had applied only at the 150-day threshold, until House Democrats changed it in reconciliation. They also cranked up the fine from $750 to $2,000 per employee, in order to pad their budget numbers.

That is only one of the enterprises which will be hurt by this boondoggle.