Group Slams Report of GOP Health Plan to Tax Workers While Rich Get Richer

The GOP’s plan for repealing the American Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, reportedly includes replacing taxes on corporations and the wealthy with taxes on the middle class—forcing workers to pick up the tab for the cost of axing healthcare for millions of people, an advocacy group warned Monday.

Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF)—a coalition of hundreds of organizations including the AFL-CIO, the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, Main Street Alliance, National Council of La Raza, SEIU, and the Working Families Party—issued the statement in response to reporting last Thursday that the repeal plan would impose $200 billion in new taxes on middle-class workers by taxing their health benefits for the first time ever.

“House Republicans want to tax workers’ healthcare benefits rather than continue to require the wealthiest Americans and big healthcare corporations to help finance health care for 20 million people now getting covered under the ACA. If true, the GOP healthcare repeal plan means the rich will get richer, millions will lose their healthcare, and workers will pick up the tab,” said ATF executive director Frank Clemente.

Congressional Quarterly (CQ) reporters Erin Mershon and Joe Williams wrote last Thursday that Republican leaders in both chambers are seeking to cap the tax exclusion employers receive for providing healthcare, which they say would “bring in” about $20 billion a year.