Paul Supports Health Care for Working Families PDF Print E-mail
FOR RELEASE: July 29, 2000

Paul Supports Health Care for Working Families Urges Colleagues to Support the "Family Health Tax Cut Act"

Washington, D.C. - Representative Ron Paul wrote his colleagues in Congress today, asking them to join him in supporting health care tax cut measures for working families. Recently, he introduced the "Family Health Tax Cut Act" (HR 4799), a bill which would help millions of parents afford health care for their children. Paul said the legislation would be especially helpful to Americans whose employers cannot afford to provide them with health insurance.
"Many hard-working Americans have low-income jobs and must struggle to pay for health care for their children," Paul stated. "Under the 'Family Heath Tax Cut Act', a struggling single mother with an asthmatic child would at last be able to provide for her child's needs, while a working-class family would not have to worry about how they will pay the bills if one of their children requires lengthy hospitalization or some other form of specialized care."
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.
The bill will be of greatest benefit to low-income Americans, who currently are forced to balance the demands of taxation with the needs of their children. 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 inability of many working Americans to provide health care for their children is rooted in Congress' failure to allow individuals the same deduction for health care costs that it grants to businesses" Paul concluded. "HR 4799 takes a good first step toward correcting this inequity. This is a common sense way to provide low-income parents tax relief in order to help them better meet their children's medical expenses. I urge my colleagues to support the pro-family, pro-health care tax cuts contained in the 'Family Health Tax Cut Act'."