NY Times Report: Republican Obamacare Plan Take From Poor Give To Rich
Republicans have been saying for years now that they have a plan to replace Obamacare and today they released the outline for their plan. In short, take from poor and give to the rich. Classic Republican orthodoxy.
A piece in the New York Times today noted that the Republican plan “would redirect federal support away from poorer Americans and toward people who are wealthier.”
“The Republican plan would alter both of those programs, changing the winners and losers,” of Obamacare the New York Times wrote. It would hurt the poor by “substantially cut funding for states in providing free insurance to low-income adults through Medicaid.”
The Times piece also notes that “the current system is set up to ensure that low and middle-income Americans can afford the cost of their premiums. The Republican plan would not do that, and would result in many more low-income people losing out on coverage if they couldn’t find the money to pay the gap between their fixed tax credit and the cost of a health plan.”
Our Revolution, the political organization that spanned from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign said on Facebook about the Republican plan:
“Paul Ryan just released the outline for the House Republicans’ “replacement” health care plan. It’s atrocious. They’re not even pretending to keep the pledge that their plan won’t reduce coverage.
“The plan is specifically targeted to reduce coverage for the poor by defunding Medicaid. Millions of low-income Americans would lose their healthcare, according to multiple independent estimates.
“It gets worse. They’re actively funneling money from the poor to the rich. Current health care law asks the top 1% to pay a bit more to help struggling Americans get coverage. Republicans want to replace that with flat tax credits—meaning multimillionaires get the same financial assistance as everyone living paycheck-to-paycheck.”
The Republican plan would also let the rich shelter money in special tax-free health savings accounts that the poor can’t afford to do.
