Nearly 72,000 People in Alaska Will Be Eligible for Health Care Premium Tax Credits in 2014

As Part of the Huge and Unprecedented Middle-Income Tax Cut, Alaskans’ Taxes Will Be Reduced by $254 Million in 2014

Washington, D.C.—In Alaska, 71,800 people will be eligible for new tax cuts beginning in 2014 that will significantly reduce the cost of private health insurance for those individuals and families. The historic tax cut in the health reform law, which is estimated to reduce nationwide income taxes by more than $110 billion in 2014 alone, will be provided through tax credits to offset a portion of the cost of health insurance premiums, and Alaskans’ tax reductions will be $254 million in that year.

Those are among the key findings of a report for Alaska released today by the health care consumer group Families USA, which commissioned The Lewin Group to use its economic models to estimate how many individuals in the state would benefit from the new premium tax credits.

Titled “Lower Taxes, Lower Premiums: The New Health Insurance Tax Credit in Alaska,” the report also states that the vast majority of Alaskans who will be eligible for the premiums tax credit—95 percent—will be in working families.

• Approximately 61,500 people, the majority of those who will be eligible for the credits, will be in families with a worker who is employed full-time.
  
  
• Another 6,800 people will be in families with a worker who is employed part-time.

The new tax credit targets middle-income families. For families of four, the tax credits—provided on a sliding scale—are focused on families with annual incomes between $36,668 and $110,280 in Alaska.

• People with annual incomes at or above 200 percent of the federal poverty level, $55,140 for a family of four in Alaska in 2010, will constitute nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of the people who will be eligible for a premium tax credit.
  
  
• Because the size of the tax credit is determined on a sliding scale based on income, however, half of the dollars from the tax cut (50 percent) will be targeted to families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty.

“This is the largest middle-income tax cut in history, and it will enable many hard-working Alaskans to afford health insurance premiums that have stretched family budgets,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA.

“The tax cut will not only put significant extra cash in Alaskans’ pocketbooks, but it will also ease the burden of families’ growing health care costs,” Pollack said.

There are about 44,900 uninsured Alaskans who will be eligible for the tax credits, and another 27,000 eligible people are currently insured but are still struggling to afford coverage.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org