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Obama to tax wealthy to pay for healthcare

By Richard Pizzi

President Obama intends to create a $634 billion reserve fund dedicated to healthcare, paid for in part by further tax increases on the wealthy.

 

The Obama administration will release its 10-year budget proposal today, and will call for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, which would raise about $318 billion over 10 year, according to administration officials.

 

The Obama plan would also cut $316 billion over 10 years from Medicare. Some of the savings would come from scaling back payments to Medicare Advantage plans.

 

Other proposals include charging upper-income beneficiaries a higher premium for Medicare’s prescription drug coverage.

 

We'll have more information on this story as it develops.