Trumpcare hurts older voters: Donald Trump endorses bill that punishes one of his key constituencies
WEDNESDAY, MAR 8, 2017 03:15 PM EST
Trumpcare hurts older voters: Donald Trump endorses bill that punishes one of his key constituencies
In 2016, Americans ages 50 to 64 strongly backed Donald Trump; now he's going to take away their health coverage
SIMON MALOY
The best way to think about the new Republican bill to “replace” the Affordable Care Act is as a slapdash scheme to take money from low-income people and give it to the rich. In the most basic sense, the Affordable Care Act taxes the wealthy so that subsidies can be provided to people who can’t otherwise afford health insurance. The American Health Care Act — crafted by House Speaker Paul Ryan and endorsed by President Donald Trump — eliminates those taxes on the rich, reduces the amount of money going to individuals who aren’t wealthy and makes it harder for low-income people to obtain health coverage.
This is especially true for the older Americans who voted in force for Trump in the 2016 election. Exit polling has indicated that voters ages 50 to 64 represented 30 percent of the total electorate, and 52 percent of them voted for Trump. They were critical to Trump’s victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — the three states that handed him the presidency. Lower-income voters in this age cohort are likely going to be badly hurt by the health care bill that Donald Trump is trying to pass.
As I wrote yesterday, the American Health Care Act makes big changes to how the federal government subsidizes health insurance for people buying it on the individual market. Under the current system, federal subsidies are tied to income: the less you earn annually, the greater your subsidy. The Trump-Ryan bill would tie those subsidies to age: As you grow older, your federal subsidy increases and everyone older than 60 who earns less than $75,000 will receive a $4,000 subsidy. At first blush, this might seem like good news for older Americans. But it isn’t.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has a nifty tool comparing the subsidies people can receive under the Affordable Care Act with those they would obtain under the Republicans’ draft “replacement” plan. If you’re 60 years old and you make $40,000, your annual subsidy would shrink by a considerable amount everywhere except Washington state and parts of the Northeast. If you make just $20,000, your subsidy would shrink no matter where you live, and in most places it would be slashed 60 percent to 70 percent. In states like Arizona and Nebraska, the reductions would be closer to 80 percent.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/03/08/trumpcare-hurts-older-voters-donald-trump-endorses-bill-that-punishes-one-of-his-key-constituencies/
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