05.14.26

Republicans Deliver for Hospital Workers and Patients. Democrats Fight for the Failed Status Quo.

Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts Law Directly Benefits Hospital Workers and Rural Hospitals. Democrats’ Health Care Record Is Dominated by Skyrocketing Taxpayer Costs that Did Nothing to Make Care More Affordable.

THIS NATIONAL HOSPITAL WEEK, THANKS TO THE WORKING FAMILIES TAX CUTS LAW, HOSPITAL WORKERS ARE KEEPING MORE OF THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY

  • Thanks to Republicans preventing a tax increase on the American people of over $4 trillion, tax filers in every income bracket saw lower rates. (U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Working Families Tax Cuts – accessed 5/14/26; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Working Families Tax Cuts Bring Bigger Paychecks – 1/16/26)
  • The Working Families Tax Cuts law created an overtime tax deduction of up to $12,500 ($25,000 for married filers): “A single adult, making $75,000, of which $10,000 is qualified overtime: Tax cut of $4,192.” (U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Working Families Tax Cuts Bring Bigger Paychecks – 1/16/26; Fox News: Thune promises 'safe streets, more money in pockets' as GOP senators hit the road to tout tax cuts – 1/26/26)
    • “The overtime deduction… has proven far more popular than anticipated….” (The Washington Post: Tax refunds shoot up as Americans take advantage of new deductions – 4/15/26)
    • “Over 25 million filers have claimed No Tax on Overtime, with an average deduction of over $3,100.” (U.S. Department of the Treasury: Over 53 Million Filers Claimed At Least One of President Trump’s Signature New Tax Cuts – 4/15/26)
  • “The health care industry employed over 17 million people in 2023, making it the largest employment sector in the United States.”
    • This includes “over four million registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) as of 2023,” many of whom will benefit from the Working Families Tax Cuts’ no tax on overtime provision. (U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration: State of the U.S. Health Care Workforce, 2024 – Nov. 2024; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Working Families Tax Cuts Bring Bigger Paychecks – 1/16/26)

REPUBLICANS’ WORKING FAMILIES TAX CUTS LAW ALSO CREATED A TRANSFORMATIVE $50 BILLION FUND TO SUPPORT RURAL HOSPITALS AND WORKERS, WHICH DEMOCRATS NOW TOUT DESPITE OPPOSING THE LAW

  • “[A]pproximately 60 million people in the United States—20% of the population… live in rural communities and rely on rural hospitals for their health care.” (Bipartisan Policy Center: Rural Hospitals and the Rural Health Transformation Program: What Comes Next – 7/10/25)
  • Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts law created a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation [RHT] program for all 50 states “to strengthen and modernize health care in rural communities across the country.” (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: CMS Announces $50 Billion in Awards to Strengthen Rural Health in All 50 States – 12/29/25)
  • “This unprecedented investment is designed to empower states to transform the existing rural health care infrastructure and build sustainable health care systems that expand access, enhance quality of care, and improve outcomes for patients.” (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: CMS Launches Landmark $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Program – 9/15/25)
  • “Another prominent theme was the need to strengthen the rural health workforce through both recruitment and retention strategies.” (State Health & Value Strategies: Innovating and Investing in Rural Health: How States Propose Spending the $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Fund – 12/12/25)
  • “[D]isbursements for states are between $145 million and $281 million for 2026...” (Politico: Trump admin doles out billions for rural health – 12/29/25)
  • Every single Democrat voted against the RHT program’s creation, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats across the country from touting its positive impact on their states:
    • Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer called the program a “fraud,” but New York and every other state applied for and received funding from the RHT program. (New York State: New York State Department of Health Submits Application for $1 Billion Under the Federal Rural Health Transformation Program – 11/6/25; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: CMS Announces $50 Billion in Awards to Strengthen Rural Health in All 50 States – 12/29/25; CQ: Senate Democrats Hold Media Availability After Closed Policy Luncheon – 6/24/25)
    • Numerous Democrat leaders applauded their states’ awards and highlighted the benefits the funding will have on health care systems. (The Daily Caller: Democrats Despise Trump’s Signature Law — Except For The Billions Going To Their States – 1/7/26)
    • Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) even introduced an amendment to increase funding for the RHT program. (U.S. Congress: S.Amdt.4623 to S.1383 – accessed 5/14/26)

IT’S NO WONDER DEMOCRATS ARE TOUTING REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS: DEMOCRATS HAVE A FAILED HEALTH CARE RECORD THAT HAS INCREASED COSTS AND RESULTED IN MASSIVE WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE

  • While in control of Congress, Democrats expanded taxpayer-funded health care subsidies to wealthier Americans, removing the income limits put in place under then-President Obama:
    • “In March 2021, at the height of the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan temporarily extended [Obamacare] premium subsidy eligibility to those with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level, allowing people at any income level to receive subsidies originally intended for those with modest means.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: Let the ObamaCare Enhanced Premium Subsidies Expire – 9/29/25)
    • “The temporarily expanded subsidies eliminated the 400-percent-of-poverty cap, allowing some Americans with incomes of almost $600,000 to qualify for government benefits.” (CATO Institute: Six Reasons to Not Extend the Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies – 10/7/25)
  • Obamacare costs have steadily increased over time:
    • Despite Democrats bringing more people into the Obamacare marketplace over time, premiums for the average Obamacare enrollee have increased 221% between 2013 and 2025. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Individual Market Premium Changes: 2013 – 2017 – 5/23/17; Paragon Health Institute: Almost Entire Obamacare Premium Increases Paid for By Taxpayers – accessed 5/14/26)
    • “In other words, Obamacare has been an engine of insurance premium inflation. Democrats have tried to cover up that fact with ever more taxpayer subsidies.” (Forbes: How Obamacare Set In Motion Today’s Premium Crisis – 10/14/25)
  • Americans’ hard-earned money has been subject to rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in both Obamacare and across the federal government:
    • Obamacare “marketplace fraud has been a problem in recent years, partly because insurance agents and brokers exploited Biden administration policies allowing year-round sign-ups…” (NOTUS: One in Five HealthCare.gov Enrollees Dropped Insurance Coverage This Year – 5/12/26)
    • “A CMS spokesperson said ACA fraud ‘skyrocketed under the Biden administration’ and depicted the enrollment surge as ‘largely the result of people being enrolled onto ACA plans without their consent or enrolling into subsidized ACA plans that they did not qualify for based on income.’” (NOTUS: One in Five HealthCare.gov Enrollees Dropped Insurance Coverage This Year – 5/12/26)
    • “The nonpartisan and nonpolitical Government Accountability Office has estimated that ‘the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud,’ based on data from 2018 to 2022.” (The Wall Street Journal: What to Know About Minnesota’s ‘Industrial-Scale Fraud’ Scandal – 12/19/25)
  • Despite Democrats’ baseless allegations, Republicans’ health care provisions have put government programs on a more sustainable trajectory for future generations:
    • “Enrollment on HealthCare.gov remains far higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic even with the declines. Signups more than doubled from 11 million enrollees to around 24 million, after Congress temporarily boosted subsidies for Americans to enroll across the board and raised the eligibility ceiling.” (NOTUS: One in Five HealthCare.gov Enrollees Dropped Insurance Coverage This Year – 5/12/26)
    • Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts law “did not cut Medicaid; rather, it slowed the program’s projected growth. Even so, CBO now projects that federal Medicaid spending will be higher a decade from now than it projected before President Biden took office.”

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(Paragon Health Institute: Pervasive Medicaid Fraud: HHS Crowdsourcing + A New Policy Brief – 2/18/26)