Why not use tax subsidies to help the uninsured buy health insurance?
The major flaw of tax subsidies is that they would be used to help purchase plans in our current fragmented system. The administrative inefficiencies and inequities that characterize our system would be left in place, and we would continue to waste valuable resources that should be going to patient care instead. Moreover, even with tax subsidies, moderate- and lower-income individuals would be unable to afford good coverage, leaving them with modest benefits and high cost-sharing that would often make health care unaffordable. Instead of perpetuating our current inequities, tax policies should be used to create equity in contributions to a system in which everyone is assured access to comprehensive beneficial services. If the tax subsidies are granted to individuals, employers would be motivated to drop their coverage, and most individuals covered would have merely rotated from employer coverage to individual coverage. The net reduction in the numbers of uninsured would be small. If th
The major flaw of tax subsidies is that they would be used to help purchase plans in our current fragmented system. The administrative inefficiencies and inequities that characterize our system would be left in place, and we would continue to waste valuable resources that should be going to patient care instead. In spite of tax subsidies, moderate and lower income individuals would be able to afford only those plans with very modest benefits, and with higher cost sharing that might make health care unaffordable. Instead of perpetuating our current inequities, tax policies should be used to create equity in contributions to a system in which everyone is assured access to comprehensive beneficial services. If the tax subsidies are granted to individuals, employers would be motivated to drop their coverage, and most individuals covered would have merely rotated from employer coverage to individual coverage. The net reduction in the numbers of uninsured would be close to negligible. If the
Various conservatives (Dems & Repugs) and business groups have propopsed achieving universal health care by requiring people to buy health insurance (like you have to do for car insurance), with the possibility that there could be tax subsidies for the poor. There are many problems with these plans (the only benefit being more privatization with public dollars going to the pockets of insurance companies). The major flaw of tax subsidies in general is that they would be used to help purchase plans in our current fragmented system. The administrative inefficiencies and inequities that characterize our system would be left in place, and we would continue to waste valuable resources that should be going to patient care instead. In spite of tax subsidies, moderate and lower income individuals would be able to afford only those plans with very modest benefits, and with higher cost sharing that might make health care unaffordable. Instead of perpetuating our current inequities, tax policies s
Tax subsidies do not fix any of the causes of the health care mess. They do not reduce costs or address the inefficiencies or administrative waste that takes dollars away from patient care. They simply shift the costs of the system. Even with tax subsidies for a “basic benefit-set”, moderate- and lower-income individuals would be unable to afford good coverage, leaving them with modest benefits and high deductibles making health care unaffordable. The costs of unpaid medical bills due to inadequate coverage would continue to be transferred to those with adequate coverage.
Tax subsidies do not fix any of the causes of the health care mess. They do not reduce costs or address the inefficiencies or administrative waste that takes dollars away from patient care. They simply shift the costs of the system. Even with tax subsidies for a “basic benefit-set”, moderate- and lower-income individuals would be unable to afford good coverage, leaving them with modest benefits and high deductibles making health care unaffordable. The costs of unpaid medical bills due to inadequate coverage would continue to be transferred to those with adequate coverage.
