Expanding Access And Choice For Health Care Consumers Through Tax Reform

Abstract

PROLOGUE:Americans outside the employer-based system of health insurance often find it difficult, if not impossible, to find affordable coverage. Proposals to help the situation by providing tax credits to help offset the cost of health insurance have found supporters at both ends of the political spectrum.In this paper an influential conservative and a long-time Democratic Hill staffer join forces to evaluate types of tax credits and promote them as "one element of a national strategy to expand choice and coverage." Advocating what they call an evolutionary, not revolutionary, approach, the authors propose that some form of federal tax credit be enacted in conjunction with states' efforts to broaden health insurance coverage. Stuart Butler is a vice-president for domestic and economic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation in

The rising number of uninsured Americans: how adequate is our health system?

“…Doubling this tax would raise $19 billion over the five-year period, and increasing the tax to $0.99 cents per pack would raise $49 billion (US Congressional Budget Office, 1996). Others propose a refundable tax credit for the uninsured to be used along with a traditional employer-based health insurance system with the tax credit based on a percentage of spending as the preferred choice (Butler and Kendall, 1999).…”