To the editor,
The current Senate bill is hardly a health-care bill at all. It's more like a stimulus bill based on supply-side or trickle-down economics.
Supply-siders hope that tax cuts will spark new business activity. As taxable income rises, federal revenue will rise enough to replace revenue lost to tax cuts. In practice, tax cuts seldom pay for themselves. Tax cuts without spending cuts result in budget deficits.
Republican leaders recognize the deficit danger. But, they want tax cuts. Their solution is to pay for tax cuts with cuts to health spending, especially Medicaid.
The Senate bill will cut subsidies for low-income families by $770 billion over 10 years. Forty-five percent of that would become a tax cut for the top 1 percent.
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The bill also will force people with pre-existing conditions back into high-risk pools where policies lack essential benefits or cost much more.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently canceled a vote on this bill due to lack of support. The truth is that most Americans want universal health care.
Given universal health care funded by a steeply progressive income tax, Americans can divert income formerly spent on health insurance into other forms of spending.
This is a fairer way to stimulate economic growth than the Senate health-care bill, which will cut health benefits for many while increasing the obscene level of wealth inequality in America.
Richard C. Hanson
Grafton
