President Barack Obama Message Board

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Politics : President Barack Obama

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To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (60041)	8/2/2009 8:49:10 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) of 149317

Frankly the cost of my health care doesn't enter into commodity prices that my company's revenue is based on. How did we get health coverage linked to employment? During WWII, there were wage and price controls. Businesses began offering fringe benefits since they couldn't give raises. There are people on the right who would like to delink health insurance and employment: What to do with the health-tax exclusion? Economist Milton Friedman suggests eliminating it. “There is no more reason for medical-care expenses to be tax deductible than for food, clothing, and housing expenses to be tax deductible,” he says. “A minimum deduction for all of them is provided in the personal exemption.” Given the political environment, Congress is unlikely to take this step. A more acceptable approach would be for the federal government to end the tax code’s discrimination in favor of employer-based health coverage. In the short term, this could be done quickly and easily: allow individuals and families buying insurance to deduct the premium without itemizing. A more radical prescription would be to phase out the health-tax exclusion and replace it with a system of refundable tax credits. If Washington is going to be in the business of subsidizing health insurance, at least it should do so smartly. People could then choose to get their health insurance through their employer, through other groups (like their church), or simply use their tax credit to buy insurance for themselves. A sliding-scale for the tax credits would also help lower-income Americans. Because of the hesitation in promoting a major health-care proposal post-HillaryCare, the credits-for-exclusion change could be phased in over several years. manhattan-institute.org

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