Who suffers, flourishes most in Arizona under new Republican health care bill?
Mar 21, 2017, 1:12 PM | Updated: 6:30 pm
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PHOENIX — An analysis by a financial website showed which Arizona cities would suffer and which would flourish under a health care plan proposed by Republicans in Congress.
Financial website WalletHub said the average two-person household in Mesa would miss $2,016 in yearly subsidies while Phoenix would lose $1,962 annually.
Yuma, located in the southwestern part of the state, would be the most affected city in the nation should Affordable Care Act subsidies be replaced with the Republican health care tax credit plan. The site said it would lose out on $7,815 in annual subsidies.
Yuma has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The annual median income is slightly more than $41,000.
Some cities in the Valley would benefit from the Republican plan. The site said both Chandler and Peoria households would enjoy an additional $5,000 per year under the new plan, while some people in Scottsdale would take an extra $6,000 to the bank.
To arrive at the figures, WalletHub took into account the subsidies the average two-person, joint-filing household would receive under the Affordable Care Act. Under the act, subsidies are determined using a person’s income, age and location, so the website assumed the two-person household was earning the median income.
It also assumed the household purchased health care coverage through the marketplace and did not use tobacco.
Finally, the site averaged the subsidies spread across each city’s 10 most populated zip codes.
For the Republican health care tax credits, the website used the age-based dollar amounts that are part of the plan.