The GOP health bill would cut benefits for very poor households by an average of $2,500 a year, econ

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/11/the-gop-health-bill-would-cut-benefits-for-the-average-very-poor-household-by-2500-a-year-economists-say/?utm_term=.28beaa67b15f

The Republican bill to undo the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would bring down taxes for the very rich while eliminating thousands of dollars in benefits for the typical poor or middle-class household, a new analysis shows.

The typical household with more than $200,000 a year in income would pay $5,500 less annually in taxes under the recent plan put forward by GOP senators. By contrast, households earning less than $10,000 a year would lose out on an average of about $2,600 in federal benefits annually, according to the analysis published Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.

The Republican bill would water down or eliminate important provisions of Obamacare, although the GOP plan would retain the overall structure of President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul.

The bill's current version — the basis for the new analysis — would get rid of taxes that Democrats under Obama laid on the rich to pay for the overhaul and reduce the subsidies designed to help consumers in the middle class buy private insurance. Republicans, however, are reportedly considering revisions to the bill that would keep some of the taxes in place, which would limit the savings for the wealthy.

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