Finally, A Republican Alternative to ObamaCare Is Emerging
June 22, 2015
News Article
After five years of internal wrangling and bickering and inaction, it seems as though Republicans in Congress are inching closer to doing what most people had thought was impossible: a sensible, workable alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
What’s the evidence? A series of proposals from different parts of the party hierarchy are signaling agreement on four main ideas.
A Flat Rate Health Tax Credit. The ObamaCare tax credits have allowed millions of Americans to have access to health insurance they otherwise could not afford. But for all the good they have done they have three very bad characteristics. First, the phase out of the tax credits creates very high implicit marginal tax rates. In some cases, families can lose thousands of dollars in subsides by earning a single dollar of additional income. Second, millions of families who basically live paycheck-to-paycheck are asked to guess their annual income a year in advance. This last time around, 3.4 million people had to pay hundreds of dollars in extra taxes because they guessed wrong.
