Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius revealed on Monday that she is working with professional sports affiliates in hopes that they will encourage fans to enroll in insurance plans provided by Obamacare.
According to an article published by The Hill, HHS has been primarily reaching out to the NFL and NBA with the hopes that the organizations would lend their support for the universal healthcare act through advertising campaigns and various partnerships.
In response to Sebelius’ announcement, Americans for Tax Reform issued a study that laid out why it would be particularly detrimental for the NBA to promote the controversial bill. Besides pointing out that NBA support for partisan legislation would bring unwanted politics into the sports world, ATR created a chart that showed the hit that some of the NBA’s highest payed players would take thanks to Obamacare’s rising Medicare payroll tax rate. ATR points out that these athletes would not only be lobbying for the rising tax rates of middle class Americans, since Obamacare contains seven new taxes that would affect the middle class, but would also be calling for an increase in their own taxes. Below is the ATR-compiled chart.
| Player | Salary | Obamacare Medicare Tax |
| Kobe Bryant | $27,849,149 | $250,642 |
| LeBron James | $17,545,000 | $157,905 |
| Kevin Durant | $16,669,629 | $150,027 |
| Carmelo Anthony | $19,444,503 | $175,001 |
| Derrick Rose | $16,402,500 | $147,623 |
| Kevin Garnett | $11,566,265 | $104,096 |
| Joakim Noah | $11,300,000 | $101,700 |
| Rajon Rondo | $11,000,000 | $99,000 |
| Blake Griffin | $7,226,892 | $65,042 |
| Kyrie Irving | $5,375,760 | $48,382 |
| Tim Duncan | $9,638,554 | $86,747 |
| Josh Smith | $13,200,000 | $118,800 |
| Deron Williams | $17,177,795 | $154,600 |
| Chris Paul | $17,779,458 | $160,015 |
| Dwayne Wade | $17,182,000 | $154,638 |
| Paul Pierce | $16,790,345 | $151,113 |
| Tony Parker | $12,500,000 | $112,500 |
| Jeremy Lin | $8,374,646 | $75,372 |
| Brandon Jennings | $3,179,493 | $28,615 |
| Dirk Nowitzki | $20,907,128 | $188,164 |
Talks with the NBA and other sports organizations are still in their preliminary stages and no official league spokespeople have commented on the issue.
