Would you be willing to pay more in taxes in order to fund a more equitable health care program for the nation’s uninsured? From MSNBC:
While details of such an approach are still sketchy, it would likely involve employees paying tax on a percentage of their employer-provided health benefits. So if Congress decided that all such premiums in excess of $11,000 for family plans would be taxable income, and your company paid premiums worth $16,000 for your coverage, you’d have to pay taxes on $5,000.
Of course, this is only in the discussion phase right now, and there’s nothing definite. It’s one option being floated as Congress begins to discuss how to actually make President Obama’s proposed health insurance reform package a reality. It’s also something John McCain proposed last year, and for which Obama criticized him. And look who else has proposed it:
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan floated the idea of requiring workers to pay taxes on employer contributions to their health insurance exceeding $2,100 a year. A Washington Post editorial the following year called the proposal “surprisingly lucrative yet eminently fair,” and speculated that “(it) might have helped hold down health care costs in the bargain.” But opposition, especially from labor unions, scuttled the proposal.
“Health insurance ëhaves’ to pay for ëhave-nots’?” [MSNBC]
(Photo: PhotoDu.de)
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This is to break the ages-old cartel between employers and insurance companies and actually create a market for insurance. Let’s face it, right now you have almost zero say in what your insurance is; the link between employment and insurance is an artificial one created by the tax break given to employer-funded health plans.
If you want to exercise any real choice over your health insurance, then you should be in favor of this measure.
This pisses me off to no end. My untaxed health benefits is one of the best things my job has going for it. I could have gone to higher paying jobs but stayed here for my family’s health insurance. Obama promised that anyone under 250k would not have their taxes raised. Well this sure feels like a raise in my tax bill. This is one of the main reasons I didn’t like McCain. Keep the government out of my wallet.
HELL NO! I am taxed enough already. Tax my health insurance & I may as well drop coverage – I wouldn’t have enough $$ left to pay the co-pay.
@dianashotko: yes. right about the time people stopped regularly dropping dead at between 30-50.
@giggitygoo: legally no they can’t. realistic’ly? yes, yes they do.
Recently read that the on average;
Wages increased 29%
Cost of living increased 34%
Healthcare cost increased 119%
And this is over the past 5 years.
I do not believe we should tax our people more, however we should regulate the drug and insurance companies from overcharging and underproviding care for their clients. Why not look at the root cause of the problem and attempt to FIX the issue rather than kick it down the line.
what if your employer is self-insured? Meaning, rather then paying a health insurance company a set fee to provide coverage for employees, they simply pay the medical bills themselves, One employee might have to pay taxes on the $8,000 in medical bills their employer paid, while another might have to pay taxes on the $150,000 the employer paid for their bills.
Is that how it would work? cause if that’s the case, the taxes could cost a person more then actually make in salary!
It is unfair that those of us who have to pay for our own health care insurance also have to help pay for those who have employer paid health care insurance. At least those of us who have to pay for our own should be able to deduct the cost from our taxes.