Print      
Winners and losers in GOP health care bill
Globe Staff

The affected groups

Winner:

1. Families in the top 1 percent

Those with incomes above $770,000 are the big winners from the new health care bill, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center. The analysis predicts those families will earn an average tax cut of $37,000 a year. Under the Affordable Care Act, couples with incomes exceeding $250,000 a year and singles with incomes exceeding $200,000 a year are subject to two high-income surtaxes: a 0.9 percent tax on earnings and a 3.8 percent tax on investment income. Those taxes would be repealed under the new proposal.

Losers:

1. Low-income, older people

Americans who fall into this group are set to be the hardest hit by the GOP health care proposal, as the group substantially benefits from the tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. Their subsidies will be significantly diminished when they’re replaced with the new system of tax credits that do not take into account individuals’ incomes and provide less assistance for the elderly. Also, the new plan would expose the elderly to premiums up to five times higher than younger people, instead of three times higher under current law.

2. Americans who gained Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion

The CBO projects that by 2022, roughly 13 million people will lose Medicaid coverage as part of the new proposal. For the most part, these people are single adults with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line.

Tyler Pager