2017: Fitzpatrick Voted Against 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,
Fitzpatrick voted against 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significantly repealed portions of the Affordable Care Act by cutting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The GOP Bill Repealed The 0.9% Medicare Hospital Insurance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]