The 'American Health Care Act' Is a Wealth Grab, Not A Health Plan

Donald Trump’s Republicans unveiled their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act this week. It’s a disaster for the health of the American people. But that may be nothing more than a byproduct of the bill’s real effect: to increase inequality and make the rich even richer than they’ve become in the last few decades. It’s not a “health” plan. It’s a wealth grab, on behalf of the already-wealthy. It’s targeted, first and foremost, toward billionaires who make money from investments rather than by earning an income. The 400 highest-earning households in the country would get an average tax break of $7 million per year under the Republican plan. Who will benefit the least? Teachers, nurses, firefighters … pretty much anybody who works for a living. If this plan becomes law the rich will get richer, most other people will lose out, and our nation’s already record-high levels of inequality will become even worse. The Rich: Richer Than Ever The middle class is dying all across America. More precisely, it’s being murdered. The Republican “health” plan would be one more nail in its coffin. Four decades ago, the top 1 percent of the nation’s earners received about 10 percent of the nation’s income, while the bottom 50 percent earned about 20 percent. Today those numbers have been reversed: Source; New York Times/Piketty, Saez, Zucman Income gains, which were much more fairly divided in the decades after the Second World War, have been going almost ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news