May 4, 2017 – Statement by President Chris Shelton, Communications Workers of America, on the proposed health care plan introduced last night by House Republicans:
We’re still learning about the health care plan proposed by House Republicans. It’s clear, however, that the legislation provides a big tax giveaway to corporations and the 1 percent, while working families, seniors and children are stuck picking up the tab.
We can all agree that the American healthcare system must be improved.
But this House proposal would strip away coverage from millions of working families who need it most, and hand millions of dollars in tax breaks and handouts to insurance companies, other corporations and the wealthy.
Lower income working families, those earning around $30,000 a year, would lose the tax credits they now receive that make it possible for them to pay for premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
Workers age 50 and older would take a big hit, because insurance companies would be permitted to charge them five times as much as younger workers.
The plan rewards the 1 percent who earn more than $774,000 a year with a big tax cut, around $33,000 according to the Tax Policy Center. The richest of the rich, the top one-tenth of 1 percent, would get an average tax cut of $197,000. Insurance, drug and medical-device companies also get tax breaks, and insurance company CEOs get an additional tax benefit.
These tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy are estimated at $525 billion over 10 years. This isn’t a health care plan, it’s a shameful handout to corporations paid for by working families who will pay more for less coverage, and by those Americans who will be left with no health care coverage at all.