The Hidden Subsidy That Helps Pay for Health Insurance (DOH!)

By artappraiser on Sat, 07/08/2017 - 2:08am |

[....] economists on the left and the right argue that to really rein in health costs, Congress should scale back or eliminate the tax exclusion on what employers pay toward employees’ health insurance premiums. Under current law, those premiums are not subject to the payroll or income taxes that are taken out of employees’ wages, an arrangement that vastly benefits middle- and upper-income people.

That one policy tweak could reduce health care spending, stabilize the health insurance market and, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, shrink the federal budget deficit by between $174 billion and $429 billion over a six-year period.

Lawmakers briefly pondered the idea this year but quickly abandoned it, recognizing how politically explosive it would be [....]

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/health/health-insurance-tax-deduction.html