Posts Tagged tax policy

An article published (ironically) July 4 in The Boston Globe reveals the crux of the problem of healthcare in America, which is the tax-exemption on employer-sponsored healthcare benefits. The article entitled Healthcare overhaul could limit tax breaks on benefits reports that New Hampshire state employees pay $720 per year for $20,400 of coverage. As part of the coverage, “surgery is free, even at Boston’s top teaching hospitals if it’s necessary. So are MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays.” Hmmm….

Diana Lacey, the chair of collective bargaining for the union, thinks that healthcare reform should “bring people up to the standard we have – healthcare that is responsible and affordable and you don’t have to go bankrupt to get the treatment you need”. Query as to where those dollars come from…

Fittingly, from the Left Coast comes the following report from the Los Angeles Times. In an article entitled Paying for healthcare overhaul may fall unevenly on states, the author notes that “blue states”, like California, New York and, wait for it…, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, may pay more for healthcare reform than “red states” that voted for John McCain.

We’ll say it again – there is simply no credible way to pay for healthcare reform without taxing employer-sponsored health benefits. Why some, but not all, of us should be taxed brings to mind a gathering of certain individuals in Boston Harbor some 235 years ago. Healthcare reform is certain to bring a number of unintended consequences, but the one that is most likely to lead to real reform and to reflect the American ideal is taxation of healthcare benefits for all. As long as surgery is “free”, we will not solve the problems before us.