Healthcare

GOP considers excluding rich from healthcare tax credits: report

Republicans are considering excluding the wealthy from new tax credits under their ObamaCare replacement plan, according to documents obtained by Politico.

The documents are dated Feb. 24, so they are not the latest version of the Republican plan, but they provide an update on a previous leaked bill from Feb. 10. 

The bill remains largely the same as a previous version. It still includes tax credits to help people buy insurance, a central element of the plan, but one that has come under fire from House conservatives who worry it is a “new entitlement.” 

{mosads}Those tax credits are based on a person’s age, not their income, which Democrats argue fails to give enough help to low-income people.  

The possible change being considered by Republican would be to cut off those tax credits so that higher-income people would not receive them. That proposal could help bring down the cost of the bill.   

The plan still includes a proposal to phase out ObamaCare’s expansion of Medicaid, another controversial element that has split Republicans, given that some want to protect the expansion. 

The proposal also still includes the controversial idea of taxing more generous employer-sponsored health insurance plans, which are now tax-exempt.

Committee members plan to work through the weekend though to make final changes to the measure ahead of expected committee votes next week. 

Tags
See all Hill.TV See all Video