what does the medicare tax pay for
As part of the health care reform legislation passed under the Affordable Care Act, the employee portion of the FICA Medicare payroll tax rate for high income earners will increase by .9% beginning in 2013. The employer portion of the Medicare tax will remain unchanged at 1.45%. The FICA tax is made up of the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax. The Social Security portion of the FICA payroll tax is currently 6.2% for employers and 4.2% for employees (calculated on the first $110,100 in wages in 2012).