George W. Bush, reaching out to minorities and swing voters,
proposed a new program of tax credits and subsidies yesterday to help
lower-income families buy health insurance, become homeowners and save
money.
In a bid for the support of independent, working-class voters, the
core of Mr. Bush's plan is centered on giving families earning $30,000
or less some of the tax incentives that middle- and upper-income people
have long enjoyed for home mortgages, health care costs and savings
plans.
The lower-income tax breaks in the Texas governor's plan "are the
functional equivalent of tax relief that other people get," said Stuart
Butler, chief domestic policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
Under the Bush plan, lower-income families that cannot now afford
health care plans would receive a refundable tax credit of up to $2,000
per family to purchase their own private health insurance coverage.
Another part of the plan would give eligible families a year's worth
of rental subsidies in a lump sum voucher to make a down payment on a
home, while a third proposal would give tax subsidies to banks that
match the savings of lower-income depositors.
"Instead of helping people cope with their need, we will help them to
move beyond it," Mr. Bush said in remarks to a group of about 250
community and church leaders on Cleveland's West Side, a heavily
blue-collar, Democratic area.
His plan would "help remove obstacles on the road to the middle
class," he said.
Mr. Butler gave Mr. Bush's plan "a B grade. I think it's a step
forward. You can quibble about the details, but the basic approach is
correct."
The Texas governor made his proposal as a new CNN/Gallup Poll showed
that with nearly six months to go before the election, he now leads Vice
President Al Gore by 9 points.
Mr. Bush's rise in the polls follows several weeks of campaigning
during which he has reached out to Hispanics in California and promoted
proposals to raise educational standards and provide school choice
vouchers to parents whose children are in failing schools.
Mr. Bush's $40 billion plan to make health insurance affordable to
those who do not have coverage is similar to a bipartisan bill sponsored
by Sens. James M. Jeffords, Vermont Republican, and John B. Breaux,
Louisiana Democrat. It is being sponsored in the House by Majority
Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican.
The plan would provide a $1,000 tax credit for individuals earning
$15,000 or less and a $2,000 tax credit per family with income of
$30,000 or less. He also proposes that Medical Care Savings Accounts be
expanded.
Conservative domestic policy experts, like Mr. Butler, said they were
generally pleased with Mr. Bush's proposals.
"There's a consistency to all of this, if you are in the middle class
you get all kinds of tax breaks for health care, IRA savings, mortgage,"
Mr. Butler said. "But if you are at the low end, there's really nothing.
So there's a disincentive to get off the bottom rung."
"This is a bold health plan," said John Goodman, the president of the
Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis that has long crusaded
for tax credits to make health care more accessible to lower-income
workers.
"This is a step toward fundamental reform of the health care system.
This will put a lot more money in the hands of patients and we'll have a
lot more people choosing their plans," Mr. Goodman said.
"Tax credits are the right cure for low-income families without
health insurance," said Grace-Marie Arnett, president of the Galen
Institute, which supports tax incentives to expand health care coverage.
"Single mothers trying to get off welfare, and minority working
families — particularly Hispanic families — stand to benefit the most
from the Bush initiative," she said.
A January poll conducted by the Hispanic Business Roundtable found
that 65 percent of Hispanics supported tax credits to help the uninsured
purchase private health insurance, she said.
But some of Mr. Bush's campaign advisers said yesterday that the
health care plan that he proposed had to overcome strong internal
opposition from some of his economic advisers at the Hoover Institution.
"His advisers at Hoover fought it. They didn't want to do anything,"
said a Bush campaign adviser who did not want to be identified.
Grace-Marie Arnett is president of the Galen
Institute, a public policy research organization based in Alexandria,
Virginia. She is the editor of Empowering Health Care Consumers
through Tax Reform, published in 1999 by the University of Michigan
Press.