approach to overhaul Obamacare is a tax cut for the rich.
The U.S.
House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved a bill to repeal and
replace Obamacare, a victory for Republican President Donald Trump who has
called the 2010 law a "disaster."
Speaking at
Berkshire's annual shareholders' meeting in Omaha, Buffett said his federal
income taxes last year would have gone down 17 percent had the new law been in
effect.
"So it
is a huge tax cut for guys like me," he said. "And when there's a tax
cut, either the deficit goes up or they get the taxes from somebody else."
The
Republican bill would repeal most of the taxes that paid for the law formally
known as the Affordable Care Act. The party's leadership has promised that the
new American Health Care Act, which faces a likely overhaul and uncertain
passage in the Senate, would address growing healthcare costs.
Buffett said
rising healthcare costs are crippling the competitiveness of U.S. companies
abroad.
Unlike in
many other countries where much of healthcare spending is publicly financed,
employers provide health insurance coverage for nearly half of Americans and
often face sky-rocketing rates.
Buffett said
healthcare costs have risen much faster in the United States than in the rest
of the world and "will go up a lot more."
"Medical
costs are the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness," he said.
"That is a problem this society is having trouble with and is going to
have more trouble with."
Buffett is a
Democrat who vocally supported Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful bid for the
presidency against Trump. The fourth richest man in the world with a net worth
totaling $74.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine, Buffett has vowed to
donate nearly his entire fortune to charity.
Berkshire
Vice Chairman Charlie Munger added that he thinks neither political party
"can think rationally" about healthcare because they "hate each
other so much." (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jennifer Ablan
and Mary Milliken)
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