Like Obamacare, But Worse: The GOP ACA Healthcare Bill Explained, Part 1

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Getting Rid of the Subsidies

What Ryan and the GOP are proposing is that we do away with these by-the-month subsidies and instead give people “refundable tax credits.”

What that would mean is that anyone who wanted to buy my $320 policy – whether they are incredibly wealthy or work a minimum wage job – would have to pay that full $320 a month up front. No monthly subsidies for anyone.

Then, at the end of the year, they would get a credit on their taxes, which would be capped at $4000 per year.

That $4000 works out to $334 a month, which you may be thinking doesn’t sound too bad.
Well, the Republican plan *does not base those tax credits on income.* They base them on age. So 37-year-old me would get the same tax credit as a 37-year-old heart surgeon, who would get the same tax credit ($2500) as a 37-year-old fast food worker.

A 62 year old would get the maximum tax credit of $4000. However, the GOP plan changes the ACA rules to allow insurance companies to charge people in their 60s up to *five times as much* for their premiums than what they can charge younger people.

So I don’t know how much that slightly higher tax credit at the end of the year would really help, especially since that 62 year old would have to, again, pay their five-times-higher premium all year long before they’d get their credit.

Next: Like Obamacare But Worse: The GOP Bill Explained Part 2

More soon, about other parts of the proposed bill.