The proposed Senate tax bill is a disaster for Alaskans. Repealing the individual mandate takes away one of the three legs supporting the Affordable Care Act, resulting in an average $2,900 premium increase for Alaskan families in 2019, and an additional 24,000 Alaskans uninsured in the next seven years.
The Congressional Budget Office warns that the bill is likely to result in mandatory cuts to Medicare in 2018, cutting $36 million for Alaska, with the greatest impacts to children and the elderly. And it obviously shifts taxes to low and mid-income families, so that over the next decade most Americans earning $75,000 or less will be paying more in taxes while those earning $100,000 or more will be paying less.
Senators Murkowski and Sullivan need to hear that Alaskans are paying attention. Let them know that you oppose such a regressive tax bill.
Steve Behnke,
Juneau
• My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.