Trump's failed healthcare bill could have saved him $2m a year, according to think tank

Donald Trump may have tried to push through a bill that would have saved him over $2 million in taxes per year.

The President wanted to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known informally as Obamacare) with the controversial America Health Care Act (AHCA). The attempt failed last week, leaving Trump’s popularity at an all-time low.

Citing his partially leaked 2005 tax return, the think-tank American Center for Progress has run the numbers and found that switching the two healthcare acts could have saved Trump over $2 million in personal taxes annually.

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This is because repealing the ACA would have lessened the taxes on high-income households that are used to subsidise universal healthcare, and replaces this with more complex personal health insurance costs.

The Center for Progress claims that if the ACA had been law in 2005 then, based on the leaked return, Trump would have paid around $2,183,552 for Additional Medicare Tax on his wages and self-employment income, and Net Investment Income Tax on his interest, dividends and capital gains.

“To be clear, these calculations can only be rough estimates because President Trump has still not released his complete tax return for 2005 or any other year,” the think-tank clarified.

“The only way to get a clear answer for how much President Trump stands to personally benefit from ACA repeal is to see his tax returns from more recent years, where his ACA tax obligations would be clearly displayed.”

Obamacare helped 20 million previously uninsured Americans get access to healthcare; critics fear that Trump’s AHCA bill will leave many of these people without health cover.

Last week Trump’s attempt to repeal the original ACA bill was dropped after fierce opposition from many in his own party.