[Townhall] Despite numerous promises from congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama when they passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the health care law has created far more problems than it has solved. Premiums, deductibles, and health care choices have all worsened since Obamacare went into effect, and there’s no sign America’s health insurance system will improve anytime in the near future.
President Trump inherited a health insurance crisis when he took office in January 2017, so he and congressional Republican leaders immediately began to work to implement their plan to replace Obamacare with a more market-centered approach to improving the nation’s health insurance system. That plan failed miserably, and ever since, the Trump administration has steadily been working‐often quietly‐to gut Obamacare of its most burdensome provisions, providing millions of Americans with financial relief and alternative ways to purchase affordable health insurance and putting Obamacare on a path toward complete collapse.
For example, in December 2017, at the request of the Trump administration and some conservatives in Congress, Republicans included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a provision reducing the Obamacare penalty for not purchasing "qualifying" health insurance to $0, beginning in January 2019. This move was particularly important for working-class families because IRS tax data show of the 6.6 million filers required to pay the Obamacare penalty in 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, 36 percent had an adjusted gross income of $10,000 to $25,000. That means Republicans’ decision to lower the penalty to $0 will save millions of working-class people from having to pay fees they likely can’t afford. |