HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/TAXES: “The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said on Thursday [11-16-17] that the latest version of the Senate tax bill would effectively raise taxes for lower-income Americans by 2021.
An analysis by the nonpartisan committee projected that, if the Senate bill becomes law, Americans earning $30,000 a year or below would pay higher taxes beginning in 2021 than they would if the bill is not enacted. The projected increase stems from the bill’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that most people have health insurance, a provision that was tucked into an amended version of the legislation this week.
The projections assume that repeal of the so-called individual mandate would result in many lower-income Americans choosing not to buy insurance, and thus not claim tax subsidies that help them defray the costs of health coverage.
As a result, their total tax liability would rise…
The analysis reports on taxpayer liability by income group, not on an individual basis. Previous committee analyses have found that millions of tax filers, across income levels, could see tax increases under Republicans’ tax proposals.”
-Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport, “Senate Plan Would Raise Taxes on the Poor, a Report Says,” The New York Times online, Nov. 16, 2017