White House officials just called losing your health insurance a tax break

[Sunlei]

Source: thinkprogress

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday that the president “is not going to sign a bill that raises taxes on the middle class, period.” Unfortunately for Mulvaney, both the House and Senate tax bills would do just that, but he’s now trying to spin millions of people losing their health insurance as them getting a tax break.

While both plans vary as to what deductions are maintained or repealed and the timing of when certain tax breaks will be implemented, at the center of both plans is a giant tax cut for corporations. Reducing the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent is expensive, costing an upwards of $1.5 trillion dollars over the next decade.

The Senate’s solution to pay for it includes the repeal of the individual mandate, a measure in the Affordable Care Act that requires individuals to be covered by health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this would result in both middle class tax hikes and 13 million more uninsured Americans over the next ten years.

The White House is appearing to use a 2012 decision by the Supreme Court that deemed the Affordable Care Act constitutional to their advantage. A key part of that decision included classifying the individual mandate as a kind of tax. Republicans are now arguing that since SCOTUS ruled the individual mandate was a tax, it must be addressed in a tax bill; however this sinister maneuver will leave millions of Americans worse off so that corporations can get a tax break.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/tax-bill-individual-mandate-735f7105af87/

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[dalton99a]

1. It's a permanent break if you die

A huge benefit, believe me

[tymorial]

2. I agree it's disgusting.

Unfortunately, I think this end around the ACA was inevitable. Obama was forced to defend the mandate in court and his administration had only one course of action; argue the mandate is a voluntary tax that will be waived if health insurance is maintained. SCOTUS agreed which handed the legislature the ability to repeal at a later date with sufficient support.

Sadly, far too many people automatically equate anything labeled a "tax" as something bad. It doesn't matter that Obamacare save lives. It's not perfect by any means but it does allow people to obtain access to healthcare without fear of losing coverage due to pre-existing condition, a lifetime of debt and/or bankruptcy.