Paul Works for Affordable Children's Health Care PDF Print E-mail
FOR RELEASE: August 3, 2000

Paul Works for Affordable Children's Health Care Outlines Legislation in Speech to Wharton Rotary Club

Surfside, TX - On Wednesday, Representative Ron Paul spoke to the Wharton Rotary Club about legislation he recently introduced aimed at helping working families pay for their children's health care expenses. Paul stated that the "Family Tax Cut Act" (HR 4799) would benefit all Americans, but would be most helpful to lower-income families and those employers cannot afford to provide them with health insurance.
"Many hard-working Americans cannot provide health care for their children because Congress won't permit individuals the same deduction for health care costs that it grants to businesses," Paul continued. "The 'Family Tax Cut Act' is designed to address this inequity. This is a commonsense way to provide low-income parents tax relief in order to help them better meet their children's medical expenses."
The "Family Health Tax Cut Act" provides parents with a tax credit of up to $500 for health care expenses of dependent children. Also, parents caring for a child with a disability, terminal disease, cancer, or any other health condition requiring specialized care would receive a tax credit of up to $3,000. All taxpayers, regardless of whether they itemize their deductions or use a standard 1040 or 1040 E-Z form, would benefit from the legislation. According to research on the "Family Health Tax Cut Act," the benefit of the tax credits would become available to joint filers with incomes slightly above $18,000 a year and single income filers with incomes slightly above $15,000 per year.
"The tax credits contained in this bill will be especially helpful to those Americans whose employers cannot afford to provide them with health insurance," said Paul. "These workers must struggle to pay for the medical bills of their families. This burden is especially heavy on parents whose children have a medical condition, such as cancer or a physical disability, which requires long-term or specialized health care."
Paul, an OB-GYN who has delivered more than four thousand babies during his career, knows first-hand the importance of adequate health care for children. He said inadequate or delayed treatment for a child's minor health problems often leads to more serious problems that require expensive treatment.
"If less affluent parents had access to the type of tax credits provided in the 'Family Health Tax Cut Act', they would be able to provide care for their children," Paul concluded. "Also, our nation's already overcrowded emergency room facilities would be relieved of the burden of having to provide routine care for people who cannot afford any other alternative."