Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Health Care and Taxes

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Impact of Key Trump Policies on Taxes and Costs: National and State Estimates

• By Steve Wamhoff

The major tax and economic policies of President Trump’s second term have increased taxes and household costs for most Americans except the richest 1%.

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Despite Any Refunds, You’re Probably Paying More Taxes Under Trump While Richest Pay Less

• By Steve Wamhoff

For a large majority of Americans, the tax increase resulting from Trump’s tariffs, along with the ending of the health care tax credits, more than offsets any tax cuts provided by OBBBA. The exception is the richest 5 percent of Americans, for whom the net result is a tax cut on average.

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Year One of Trump-Republican Tax Policy: The Consequences

• By Michael Ettlinger

President Trump has dramatically increased tariff taxes, enacted large tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations, dramatically curtailed IRS enforcement, and issued legally problematic regulations.

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State-by-State Estimates of the First Year of Trump’s Tax Policies: All But the Richest Americans Face Higher Taxes

• By Steve Wamhoff, Michael Ettlinger

As a result of the tax policies approved by President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress, all but the richest Americans are paying higher taxes on average in 2026 than they did last year.

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Taxes Save Babies’ Lives

• By Amy Hanauer

A compelling new examination over multiple years and multiple states found that infants are more likely to survive to age one in states that raise more revenue and raise it from those most able to pay. Generating taxes from rich people and corporations can help babies make it to their first birthday.

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Key Reform in Build Back Better Act Would Close Loophole Used by the Rich To Avoid Funding Healthcare

• By Joe Hughes

The proposal in the Democrats’ Build Back Better proposal applies the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax to all profit distributions from partnerships and S-corporations so that this income of wealthy pass-through business owners no longer escapes.

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Sen. Warren Proposes Sweeping Tax Changes to Finance Medicare for All

• By Steve Wamhoff

Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released a plan today to offset the costs of Medicare for All, a publicly funded single-payer health care program. While ITEP has not crunched the numbers, it seems likely overall that her proposals would raise trillions of dollars and leave costs and taxes either unchanged or lower for most low- and middle-income people.

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End-of-Year Tax Measure Would Give Deficit-Financed Tax Cuts to Wealthy Families and Corporations

• By ITEP Staff

Outgoing Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) today introduced legislation that includes $80 billion in tax cuts that are unpaid for and largely benefit the wealthy. The bill would, among its numerous provisions, expand retirement and education savings programs that offer very little value to low-income families, delay the Health Insurance Tax for an additional two years, and delay the Medical Device Tax for an additional five years.

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Senate Health Care Reform Bill Just as “Mean” as the House Version

• By Alan Essig

The Congressional Budget Office today released its score of the Senate Health Care proposal and the news is not good. It’s no wonder a narrow group of 13 lawmakers cobbled together the bill behind closed doors. Now that the measure has seen the light of day, we know that it epitomizes Robin Hood in reverse policies by snatching health coverage from 22 million people by 2026 (15 million in 2018) while showering tax cuts on…

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The GOP Health Plan Cuts Medicaid to Lower Taxes for the Richest 3 Percent

• By Alan Essig

The bill passed by the House of Representatives last month to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the most unpopular legislation in decades. Lawmakers should reverse course and take the necessary time to put together legislation that would preserve or, better yet, improve access to health care. But this isn’t likely to happen because at its core, the American Health Care Act isn’t truly health care reform. It is tax cuts that disproportionately benefit…

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Which States Benefit from the Tax Cuts in the GOP Health Plan?

• By Steve Wamhoff

Congressional Republicans’ plans to repeal the two largest tax increases on individuals that were enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would disproportionately benefit residents of Connecticut, New York, the District of Columbia and 10 other states. The remaining states would receive a share of the tax cuts that is less than their share of the total U.S. population.

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Avocado Toast, iPhones, Billionairesplaining and the Trump Budget

• By Jenice R. Robinson

A couple weeks ago, a billionaire set the Internet ablaze when on 60 Minutes Australia he chided millennials to stop buying avocado toast and fancy coffee if they wanted to buy a home. The backlash was swift and deserved. Twenty- and early thirty-something people rightly took offense to the suggestion that they haven’t purchased homes […]

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23 Million Uninsured Americans Is Too Great a Cost to Finance Tax Cuts for the Rich

• By Richard Phillips

The cost to give $1 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations is 23 million uninsured Americans by 2026. This is the bottom-line take away from the much-awaited Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of the American Health Care Act, which House Republicans rushed through the chamber and narrowly passed (217-213) in early May.

Evidence Counts: Wealthiest 1% of West Virginians Gain from Tax Cuts in Health Care Repeal

• By ITEP Staff

The House proposal to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with the American Health Care Act (AHCA), provides only a tiny fraction of very wealthy West Virginians tax cuts while reducing the number of Americans with health coverage by an estimated 24 million. The two big tax cuts included in the […]

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Affordable Care Act Repeal Includes a $31 Billion Tax Cut for a Handful of the Wealthiest Taxpayers: 50-State Breakdown

• By Matthew Gardner

Congressional Republicans have proposed legislation that would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including rolling back a number of tax changes that were enacted to pay for the ACA's health care expansions. Among these tax changes are two targeted income tax increases that took effect in 2013, each of which apply only to a small number of the wealthiest Americans: the net investment tax and additional Medicare tax. Repealing these two taxes would cost over…

Evidence Counts: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven: A State EITC Without an Income Tax

• By ITEP Staff

Last Friday, the Senate Select Committee on Tax Reform explored the idea of amending SB 335 to include a version of a refundable state Earned Income Tax Credit. As noted previously, SB 335 would replace the personal and corporate income tax, along with the sales and use tax, with a general consumption tax of 8 […]