Employers have to stop providing most health insurance to employees. They only need hospitalization. Employers should give employees an increase in pay which they can use to pay for doctor appointments. Doctors will lower their charges through competition. Then we can end Medicare Parts B, C, and D except for those already using them.
Thank you for your comment and support of the Debt Dispatch, Mary! You are correct that treating employer-provided health insurance preferentially in the tax code is the original sin of US health policy. Most bad choices flow from it. Employer-paid premiums for health insurance are exempt from federal income and payroll taxes. The portion of premiums employees pay is also typically excluded from taxable income. This tax subsidy explains why most Americans get health insurance coverage through their employers.
In 1993, Senators Don Nickles (R-OK) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), with support from the once-great Heritage Foundation, introduced the Consumer Choice and Health Security Act that reformed health insurance to empower consumers with money (by changing the tax code) and ability to choose plans the way they shopped for auto insurance - only buy what you need - with health savings account incentives to meet deductibles and other qualified expenses. There's no reason that model can't be expanded to include Medicare. https://www.heritage.org/report/the-consumer-choice-health-security-act-s1743-hr-3698
Employers have to stop providing most health insurance to employees. They only need hospitalization. Employers should give employees an increase in pay which they can use to pay for doctor appointments. Doctors will lower their charges through competition. Then we can end Medicare Parts B, C, and D except for those already using them.
Thank you for your comment and support of the Debt Dispatch, Mary! You are correct that treating employer-provided health insurance preferentially in the tax code is the original sin of US health policy. Most bad choices flow from it. Employer-paid premiums for health insurance are exempt from federal income and payroll taxes. The portion of premiums employees pay is also typically excluded from taxable income. This tax subsidy explains why most Americans get health insurance coverage through their employers.
In 1993, Senators Don Nickles (R-OK) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), with support from the once-great Heritage Foundation, introduced the Consumer Choice and Health Security Act that reformed health insurance to empower consumers with money (by changing the tax code) and ability to choose plans the way they shopped for auto insurance - only buy what you need - with health savings account incentives to meet deductibles and other qualified expenses. There's no reason that model can't be expanded to include Medicare. https://www.heritage.org/report/the-consumer-choice-health-security-act-s1743-hr-3698
I like it. Let's do that.