03/12/2017
New Health Care Bill: Tax Cut for the Wealthy
The battle to repeal Obamacare is the new goal of Trump’s administration. The Republican Party are calling the new bill the American Health Care Act. Richard (RJ) Eskow of Huffington Post writes, “It’s a disaster for the health of the American people” because “it’s not a ‘health’ plan,’” but another form of inequality. The purpose of the bill provides an average tax break of $7 million per year for wealthy Americans making earnings through investments. Benefiting the least are teachers, nurses, and those of us who work for living.
House Speaker Paul Ryan argues “I’m not that concerned about [the bill’s tax cut], because we said we were going to repeal all the Obamacare taxes” in an interview with Fox News. And surely, Ryan would be least concern because the tax cut would only apply to people earning $200,000, or more and give the best savings to unearned income investors apart of the Affordable Care Act. But someone has to pay because these giveaways to the rich aren’t free!
Every member of the ACA will suffer through additional costs estimating to be $2,400 by 2020. A study by Vox estimates “for families with a head of household age 55 to 64, the bill would increase costs by $7,604. For families with income below 250 percent of poverty, the bill would increase costs by $6,228.” How can this be? Why are the less-fortunate paying for the rich to become richer?
Rep. Roger Marshall faces minimal backlash after his comment that poor people “just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves” in a STAT web-article. This controversial view is what’s driving Republicans to go forth with the bill. It is a form of mistreatment, classism, and inequality. “It’s important to remember that Trump and his fellow Republicans haven’t really created a ‘health’ plan,” Eskow adds, “they’ve created a ‘wealth’ plan for their rich benefactors. This plan won’t just make people sicker. It will make the economy sicker, too, and we’ll all pay the price.”
Written by Anthony Tapia of San Francisco State University
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-american-health-care-act-is-a-wealth-grab-not_us_58c091d7e4b0c3276fb7812a
