During a period that included more than a dozen tax increases, the ACA is arguably the largest as a single piece of legislation, adding about six percentage points to the marginal tax rate faced, on average, by workers in the economy. The only way to cite larger marginal tax increases would be to combine multiple coincident laws, such as the Revenue Acts of 1950 and 1951 and the new payroll tax rate that went into effect in 1950. Even with these adjustments, the ACA is still the third largest marginal tax rate hike during the seventy years.
We need the SNEP solution of replacing means-tested programs with a universal benefit.
If we were talking about putting a man on the moon, Mulligan would reiterate “but gravity pulls down” like it was an amazing fact and the only important one, that no one had considered and that made it impossible to do so.
One thing about government provided healthcare is that most people who are qualified to get it, value it at way below its cost, so that the demotivating effects are less than it would seem from looking at the true marginal tax rate. For example most people would rather get an extra $100/month that to get on medicaid.