Attention House Republicans--remember TrumpCare?
Attention House Republicans: you might want to think real carefully about your vote on the tax bill, since there’s a good chance that there won’t be a conference report – just like with ACA repeal, it seems pretty likely whatever the Senate passes will just come over here for a vote. And their bill just got a whole lot worse. Their plan to combine their tax scam bill with another attempt to repeal the ACA will cause premiums to skyrocket and lead to more Americans being uninsured. And now that Senator Collins has crunched the numbers, she agrees it’s a bad move for the American people. From Talking Points Memo:
“Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has crunched the numbers on repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, and she does not like what she sees.”
“The morning after Senate Republican leaders gave their blessing for the tax bill to include a provision gutting the mandate, the Maine senator told reporters that her staff used data from the IRS, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Kaiser Family Foundation to calculate that the large increase in health insurance premiums that would result from the mandate’s repeal would more than cancel out the tax breaks many middle class Americans would get from the rest of the GOP tax bill.”
“‘…I believe taking a particular provision from the Affordable Care Act and appending it to the tax bill greatly complicates our efforts. One of my concerns is that it will cause premiums in the individual markets to go up as healthier, younger people drop out.’”
“‘I have new statistics,’ Collins added, patting a thick black binder under her arm, ‘that show that for some middle-income people, it will cancel out their tax cut. The increased premium would be more than the tax reduction they would get from this bill.’”
“Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has crunched the numbers on repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, and she does not like what she sees.”
“The morning after Senate Republican leaders gave their blessing for the tax bill to include a provision gutting the mandate, the Maine senator told reporters that her staff used data from the IRS, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Kaiser Family Foundation to calculate that the large increase in health insurance premiums that would result from the mandate’s repeal would more than cancel out the tax breaks many middle class Americans would get from the rest of the GOP tax bill.”
“‘…I believe taking a particular provision from the Affordable Care Act and appending it to the tax bill greatly complicates our efforts. One of my concerns is that it will cause premiums in the individual markets to go up as healthier, younger people drop out.’”
“‘I have new statistics,’ Collins added, patting a thick black binder under her arm, ‘that show that for some middle-income people, it will cancel out their tax cut. The increased premium would be more than the tax reduction they would get from this bill.’”