Republican Health Care Plan: Trumpcare Gives Wealthiest 1% A $31B Taxcut

The wealthiest Americans will see the biggest benefit from the Republican plan to repeal the tax on investments and additional Medicare tax in the Republican American Health Care Act, a state-by-state analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates, with California and the District of Columbia the biggest winners.

The analysis indicated the wealthiest Americans will see a $31 billion tax cut if the Obamacare replacement measure is approved, with the wealthiest 1 percent reaping as much as 96 percent of the benefit.

“The bottom line is that this is another proposed tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans,” said Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization. “Just like Congress’ proposed tax plan, the health care bill focuses on ensuring the wealthy have to contribute as little as possible to fund the services on which we all rely.”

Read: Senators Predict Defeat Of 'Obamacare-Lite'

The House is scheduled to vote on the AHCA Thursday, but about two dozen conservatives are balking at approving the measure, and Senate conservatives have labeled the bill Obamacare-lite and unacceptable. House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump have been lobbying hard for the measure.

Former Vice President Joe Biden returned to Capitol Hill Wednesday to condemn the Republican effort to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Read: Obamacare Replacement Defended By Paul Ryan, Tom Price

“When you cut to the chase, we’re talking about eliminating close to $1 trillion in benefits that go to people … and transferring all of that to the wealthy. That’s what this is all about,” Biden, flanked by scores of other Democrats, told a cheering crowd to mark the seventh anniversary of the signing of Obamacare.

“That’s classic Republican politics. This is a tax bill for them.”

The institute’s analysis bolsters Democrats’ position that the AHCA would gut the central elements of Obamacare while threatening coverage for low- and middle-income Americans, especially older workers not yet eligible for Medicare.

The analysis indicates 5.7 percent of District of Columbia taxpayers, earning an average $984,000 to more than $2.9 million, would benefit from repeal of the investment tax, the largest percentage in the country, while California had the most beneficiaries at 697,600, earning an average $786,000 to $2.5 million. The state seeing the least benefit would be West Virginia, where the top 1 percent earns an average $346,000 to $762,000, where only 1.1 percent would see a benefit while Wyoming, where the top 1 percent earns an average $530,000 to $3 million, had the fewest beneficiaries at 6,800.

The District of Columbia also sees the greatest percentage of the population benefiting from repeal of the additional Medicare tax, 6.1 percent, while California again had the most beneficiaries at 637,000. West Virginia again saw the lowest percentage at 0.8 percent and Wyoming had the fewest at 3,400.