Meet The Press host David Gregory misrepresented the Affordable Care Act's “medicare surtax” to suggest that it will be felt by “anybody who gets a paycheck in this country,” though the provisions will only affect individuals with an annual income above $200,000.

Beginning with 2013 tax returns, new tax provisions included in the Affordable Care Act will begin to take effect. Though most Americans will only see a tax increase if they decide to forgo health coverage, some changes designed to increase fairness in Medicare funding will begin to affect the wealthiest Americans.

Gregory misled about this change during a discussion about the Affordable Care Act implementation process on the July 7 edition of NBC's Meet the Press. He noted that while he didn't understand all the “ins and outs” of the healthcare law, its Medicare tax increases were one thing that would be apparent to all working Americans on their paychecks.

Gregory's claim failed to recognize that both of the healthcare law's Medicare tax increases affect only the wealthiest of Americans. A 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax increase will apply to individual earners whose annual income exceeds $200,000 or households earning more than $250,000 - a group representing only 4.2 percent of taxpayers. An additional 3.8 percent tax will apply to the investment income of some Americans. As Forbes noted, “for individuals who have little or no net investment income, their 3.8% Medicare Surtax will be minimal if not zero.”

According to the White House, the changes are designed to increase fairness in a system that is highly regressive. Currently, Americans with substantial unearned income do not pay into the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund as workers do, and payroll tax caps decrease the percentage that high-earners contribute.