How the Senate bill redistributes the ACA's costs and benefits
The Affordable Care Act raised taxes on wealthy people and diverted the money into health care benefits for lower-income people. A new analysis from the Urban Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank. shows just how dramatically the Senate health-care bill would reverse that redistribution. The figures below represent Urban's best guess at the overall changes the Senate bill would affect in household income — accounting not just for its overhaul of the ACA's taxes and subsidies, but also changes in benefits.
Key caveat: The discrepancies here might flatten out somewhat after Republicans release the next version of their bill, which likely won't give wealthy families as big a tax cut as the initial version. But the bill's Medicaid cuts would still leave a deep dent in many poor families' pocketbooks.