From Americans for Tax Fairness (https://americansfortaxfairness.org/):
If Congress doesn’t act now, it’s estimated that more than 3 million people will lose health insurance coverage at the end of this year, with millions more seeing massive rate hikes.[1]
That’s because the subsidies to help people afford health insurance passed in last year’s American Rescue Plan are about to expire at the end of this year. The House has already acted to renew these subsidies through 2025, but this legislation is stalled in the Senate.
Will you write to our U.S. senators right now at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-senate-to-act-to-prevent-more-than-3-million-people-from-losing-health-insurance and demand they extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are helping insure millions more people and lower costs for low-income and working families?
In March of 2021, when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, they reduced the costs that many working people were paying for health insurance by providing more generous subsidies and expanding the number of households that were eligible.
This resulted in a record high 14.5 million people receiving health insurance through the Affordable Care act this year. But, with those subsidies scheduled to run out January 1, millions of people and families could be priced out of the health insurance marketplace.
The amounts people would have to pay for coverage would increase sharply―from about $400 a year to $3,300 a year depending on their type of insurance coverage.[1]
The single year cost of extending these subsidies is $40 billion, which is equivalent to 15 days of wealth growth by American billionaires during the pandemic.[2] The Senate could pay for the costs of providing this healthcare for millions of people by enacting some form of a Billionaires Income Tax. President Biden has a plan that would raise at least $360 billion and Senator Wyden has a plan that would raise at least $550 billion.[3] This is a no-brainer!
The American Rescue Plan helped millions of people afford health insurance through the ACA. We can’t go backwards. Demand the Senate act―and make billionaires pay for it!
[1] “Health Premiums Will Rise Steeply for Millions if Rescue Plan Tax Credits Expire,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, May 26, 2022[2] “This Tax Day, America’s Working Families Are Paying Their Fair Share But America’s Billionaires Are Not,” Americans for Tax Fairness, April 14, 2022
[3] #TaxBillionaires.org website, Americans for Tax Fairness, https://billionairestax.org/the-plans/
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