Fox News keep showing an audience waiting to hear Hillary give a speech about health care/insurance.
I don't plan on watching...but I use that to mention what I saw as the main headline on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today..(my newspaper)...it says:
"Bush plan would tax heathcare benefits"...
I haven't read it all...but it says the basic concept is the POTUS' plan is that employer-provided health insurance would no longer be tax-free. But the government would offer a new tax deduction for people buying health insurance on their own.
Kinda sounds like a tax increase for the middle class...like I am...we have health insurance that is partly paid by the employer and partly paid by us.
I can't make an opinion based on a left newspaper's article...but am very interested in seeing if this is true.
Anyone know anymore about this?
I heard that employer-provided health benefits would be taxed, but everyone would be offered a tax deduction - $7500 for singles, $15,000 for families - whether they had employer-provided health benefits or not. Presumably, the money from the deduction could be used to buy health insurance by those who did not get it from their employers. And for those who did get if from their employers - they could use the deduction to offset their new tax on benefits. If the value of their benefits exceeded $7500 for singles or $15,000 for families, then they would now be paying a new tax on the difference.
The IRS has been trying for decades to get their hands on employer-paid health benefits and the labor unions have been fighting them. Somehow, I don't think the labor unions will go for this new plan.
I don't like it but here is the idea.
Right now health care is a non taxed benefit. The idea is to make really overly generous benefit plans (i.e. Govt Union plans are an example of really really generous plans that are mostly a way of increasing pay without actually paying more) taxable while creating a tax deduction for people who buy their own health insurance. I would wait and see what actually comes out and where various groups like the Govt Employee Unions and AARP line up on it. My initial reaction is to hate anything that includes a tax increase but that just me.