Raleigh News & Observer: The big lies about health care
The Senate’s version of Trumpcare is exactly what we expected: a bill that favors the top 0.1% and will leave millions of Americans without health coverage. Republicans claim they support health care for all Americans, but it’s clear they really prioritize tax breaks for the top 0.1%. The GOP claims they want to lower premiums, but their bill simply increases the average American’s premium. It’s clear this bill doesn’t work for the majority of Americans and was written by the Senate in favor of the top 0.1%.
This bill is primarily about improving health care for American families. No, this effort is primarily about cutting taxes. When it comes to health care, the main thing the bill does is take money away from providing it to pay for the tax cuts it contains and for future bonanzas the Republicans have promised.
The tax cuts in this legislation alone would amount to some $700 billion over a decade, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. About $33 billion of this would go to tax cuts conservatively averaging $7 million every year to each of the 400 highest-income families in the country. What could $33 billion buy? The CBPP reports it would be enough to pay for the expansion of Medicaid in Nevada, West Virginia, Arkansas and Alaska. Talk about income redistribution.
A telltale sign: One of the main Republican complaints about Obamacare has been that the deductibles and co-pays under ACA policies are too high. But the Republican bill only makes this problem worse.
As The New York Times’ Margot Sanger-Katz wrote: “Many middle-income Americans would be expected to pay a larger share of their income to purchase health insurance that covers a smaller share of their care.”
If this bill were truly about health care, Republicans would take all the tax cuts out and use that money to ease the pain their bill would cause. But they won’t, because the tax cuts are the thing that matters to them.
