Republican Health Plan Is A $600 Billion Tax Cut For The Rich
So far, the Republican plan to replace Obamacare is going over like a lead balloon. Progressives hate it because it will potentially take health insurance away from poor and middle class Americans and instead give them something called “access.”
Conservative Republicans hate it because, as far a we can gather, it doesn’t take insurance away from more Americans.
Hospitals hate it because they will have a giant increase in uninsured people showing up in their emergency rooms.
The AARP hates the plan because it essentially amounts to an “age tax.”
Which begs the question, exactly who loves the Republican health plan? Oh, rich people of course.
The Republican plan, in addition to ripping insurance away from millions – amounts to a gigantic $600 billion tax cut for the rich.
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, “repealing the ACA’s taxes alone will cost nearly $600 billion through 2026 – and likely close to $700 billion through 2027.”
Here’s why:
Under Obamacare, in order to pay for more low-income and middle-income Americans to have health insurance, a handful of taxes were placed on couples making more than $250,000 a year.
Those taxes include a 3.8% surtax on investment income and a 0.9% surtax on wages.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, those taxes bring in about $27 billion a year. So if you repeal that tax, you are essentially transferring a $275 billion health care burden from the top 1% or 2% onto poor and middle income Americans.
So the top 1% surely love the Republican health plan, because while most Americans are going to either lose their health insurance or have a harder time affording it – rich folks are making out like bandits.
In addition, Obamacare has a rule the prevents health insurance companies from taking a tax deduction for paying their executives over $500,000. Well the Republican plan nixes that. Looks like we just found some more rich people who love the Republican health plan.
There’s also the 0.9 percent Medicare surtax that Obamacare put in place which is levied on couples with income over $250,000 a year. And the the Republican plan would of course repeal this surtax. According to the Tax Policy Center, the bottom 90% of income earners would get a whopping $0 tax cut. But the top 0.1%? They will get an average tax cut of $30,52o.
And when you hear about “health savings accounts” from Republicans, don’t be duped. Low-income folks don’t have money to buy insurance, so telling them to put money in a health savings account is like telling them to f*@k off. The same applies to middles-class Americans who don’t receive insurance from their employer. The reason these folks don’t have insurance isn’t because they have a fancy health savings account, it’s because they can’t afford it.
But you know which group of people just love health savings accounts? Yup, rich people. And the reason is because it’s yet another option for them to shield their money from the tax man.
