2017: Schweikert Voted For The American Health Care Act That Which Would Result In 23 Million Fewer Americans With Health Insurance By 2026 While Also Cutting Taxes For The Rich. In May 2017, Schweikert voted for the American Health Care Act which would have significantly repealed portions of the Affordable Care Act by cutting Medicaid, cutting taxes on the rich, removing safeguard for pre-existing conditions and defunding Planned Parenthood. The overall legislation would have in part, also according to Congressional Quarterly, "ma[d]e extensive changes to the 2010 health care overhaul law, by effectively repealing the individual and employer mandates as well as most of the taxes that finance the current system. It would [have], in 2020, convert[ed] Medicaid into a capped entitlement that would provide[d] fixed federal payments to states and end[ed] additional federal funding for the 2010 law's joint federal-state Medicaid expansion. It would prohibit federal funding to any entity, such as Planned Parenthood, that performs abortions and receives more than $350 million a year in Medicaid funds. [...] It would [have] allow[ed] states to receive waivers to exempt insurers from having to provide certain minimum benefits." The vote was on passage. The House passed the bill by a vote of 217 to 213. The bill, in modified forms, died in the Senate. [House Vote 256, 5/4/17; Congressional Quarterly, 5/4/17; Kaiser Family Foundation, 5/17; Congressional Actions, H.R. 1628]
Legislation Cut Taxes By $662 Billion, Mostly For The Wealthy. According to Vox, "The House bill would also cut taxes by $662 billion over the next decade, according to a separate analysis released Wednesday by the Joint Committee on Taxation, mostly by repealing Obamacare taxes on the wealthy and health care industries." [Vox, 5/24/17]
The GOP Bill Repealed The 0.9% Medicare Hospital Insurance Surtax. According to the House Ways and Means Committee, "Obamacare imposed a Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) surtax based on income at a rate equal to 0.9 percent of an employee's wages or a self-employed individual's self-employment income. This section repeals the additional 0.9 percent Medicare tax beginning in 2018." [House Ways and Means Committee, 3/6/17]