Psychiatrists: Takes 1 minute to act on tax-reform bills
11/16/2017
From the APA:
Congress is currently considering two tax-reform bills, both of which will harm our patients' access to mental health care. We must stand up for our patients and tell Congress to reject these proposals.
How Tax Reform Impacts People with Mental Illness:
- The House-passed proposal seeks to end the tax deduction for medical expenses: This deduction allows people who spend at least 10% of their income on medical expenses to deduct those costs from their taxes. Our patients may use this deduction to off-set the costs of appointments, stays in inpatient psychiatric or substance use facilities, transportation to mental health treatment or medication.
- The Senate's proposal would repeal the Affordable Care Act's Individual Mandate:Psychiatric Services in Advance just announced a study's findings that access to mental health care has increased under the ACA. Repealing the individual mandate would reverse all that progress by causing the number of uninsured Americans to increase by 13 million by 2027 and ultimately result is skyrocketing premium increases.
- Both proposals could cause cuts to Medicaid and Medicare: While neither tax bill touches Medicaid and Medicare, it is estimated that the current proposals could add as much as $1.5 trillion to the deficit. To pay for the tax cuts and reduce the deficit, Congress may propose cuts to critical safety net programs, like Medicaid, soon.
The APA has already joined forces with other prominent physician groups to take a leadership role in fighting back these harmful proposals.
Now you can support these efforts!
Write your federal lawmakers today and tell them to reject any tax reform proposals that would harm our patients' access to mental health care.
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