The Affordable Care Act (ACA), the so-called “Obamacare,” is a rousing success. ACA has reduced the number of uninsured persons. While I would like a plan that would reduce this rate of uninsured persons to zero–a universal health care plan–the ACA, as developed by conservatives at the Heritage Foundation, was not designed for that purpose. However, the plan exceeded expectations. In states with Medicaid expansion AND a state exchange the uninsured rate has been reduced almost half (44%), and in other states the uninsured rate has been reduced by 28%. In addition to reducing the number of people without insurance Obamacare came in under budget, costing less than expected.
Yet, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed 62 bills to repeal Obamacare, with only the last one getting through the Senate to the President’s desk, and he promptly vetoed it. Why are Republicans so aggressive in trying to repeal Obamacare? Of course, they oppose most initiatives of the President and this is only one more issue to fight him on. But is defeating an Obama initiative enough reason to dispute the obvious facts about the level of success of Obamacare? Is defeating ACA worth denying health insurance to millions of people, when the prestigious Institute of Medicine estimates that every year in the United States, 45,000 people die because they do not have medical care insurance? Apparently the Republican legislators are that callous; however, maybe something else is also at play.
Many analysts and commentators advise us to follow the money to answer many of questions about policy issues. I think we should take their advice on this one, because money is involved here. Specifically, taxes. Obamacare actually raised taxes on the wealthy. This occurred after decades of lowering the income tax rates paid by the wealthy. The Affordable Care Act imposed new taxes on high earners, increasing their tax on other regular income and income from capital gains. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would restore some of these tax cuts for the wealthy, the 1%. Perhaps the goal of Republican legislators is to roll back these small tax increases on the wealthy. Such action would be consistent with their perennial position on taxes–aiding the wealthy.