The situation is dire. Millions of people in the United States are months away from losing their health care. On January 1, dramatic changes to Medicaid outlined in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBA, will take effect, impacting who is eligible for Medicaid. The new law excludes some groups completely (like most immigrants), introduces “community engagement” requirements (defined as 80 hours a month of work, volunteering, or school) for most people (apart from the elderly, children, and pregnant women), and requires renewals twice a year (as opposed to yearly). Some people have been impacted already (Nebraska implemented its changes on May 1 and began disenrolling people this month), and some will be kicked off their health care in October, when some previously qualified immigrants are made ineligible for Medicaid.
Though 92 percent of people should remain eligible for Medicaid coverage (through either a qualifying exemption or meeting the community engagement requirements), millions will still end up losing care.
It’s mathematically possible to have basic necessities for all with a combination of tax increases and lowering the military budget to $100 billion a year.
A combination of tax increases on capital gains, inheritances, incomes (particularly heavier taxation on net worth over $10 million) and VAT would raise effective tax rates to 35-50% for most households, provide education, food, housing assistance, childcare and universal healthcare (with total power over rates and medication pricing), while creating enough of a budget surplus to slowly pay down the national debt and close the budget deficit.
Note that nearly everyone would benefit from this, as the reduced expense of necessities would offset the extra paid in taxes, and most households would end up ahead.
And that’s not even getting into reforming a controlled private/public pension system, which would be included in all of this. Along with workers rights reforms and mandatory distribution of corporate shares to employees. Let’s also talk about private/public coop to rapidly build high-density, green, multi-family housing to drastically increase housing supply to affordable levels.
Of course all of this would be…. Socialism.
Didn’t you even once think of the poor billionaires?
The irony is they would still be obscenely rich under such a system.
I like the phrase morbidly wealthy.
Yes, but they wouldn’t be quite as rich. Why … they might even have to cut back on their private space program hobbies!
Or the middle man that Republicans inserted into the equation in 1973 could be eliminated and instead everyone could pay way less for universal health coverage. The downside is that there would be fewer billionaires in the world, but I could live with that.
Reminiscent of the carbon tax rebate here in Canada which I still miss but people are absolute morons