Copy of America's Affordable Health Choice Bill Released Today
The U.S. House of Representatives released the text of its healthcare reform bill today. You can find a copy of the bill at this link. The bill is over 1,000 pages, and so it will take some time before it can be completely analyzed. With respect to individual income taxes, the bill proposes a surcharge on taxpayers other than corporations as follows:
- 1% of so much of the modified adjusted gross income of the taxpayer as exceeds $350,000 but does not exceed $500,000;
- 1.5% of so much of the modified adjusted gross income of the taxpayer as exceeds $500,000 but does not exceed $1,000,000; and
- 5.4% of so much of the modified adjusted gross income of the taxpayer as exceeds $1,000,000.
For taxpayers other than those making joint returns or a surviving spouse, the above dollar amounts are adjusted as follows:
- to 50% of the dollar amount in the case of a married individual filing separately; and
- to 80% of the dollar amount in every other case.
The 1% surcharge goes to 2%, and the 1.5% surcharge goes to 3% for tax years after December 31, 2012, if certain health reform savings are not realized; but the 1% and 1.5% surcharges go away in their entirety and do not increase to 2% and 3% respectively after December 31, 2012, if savings in excess of $175 billion are realized.
You can also find coverage of this at TaxProfBlog. See also the New York Times ("Employers who don't provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers' wages with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.")
how does a citizen obtain a copy of the bill in its entirety