Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill

The following article by Margot Sanger-Katz was posted on the New York Times website June 22, 2017:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at his office on Thursday, when the Republican health plan was made public. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Affordable Care Act gave health insurance to millions of Americans by shifting resources from the wealthy to the poor and by moving oversight from states to the federal government. The Senate bill introduced Thursday pushes back forcefully on both dimensions.

The bill is aligned with long-held Republican values, advancing states’ rights and paring back growing entitlement programs, while freeing individuals from requirements that they have insurance and emphasizing personal responsibility. Obamacare raised taxes on high earners and the health care industry, and essentially redistributed that income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. Continue reading “Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill”