Why do you think this is a good idea? Why is taxing any benefit a good thing? We are moving to first party being the government? If first party is me, fine but not the government because they will start dictating who can get it for what purposes, what healthcare workers get paid etc. Bad idea IMHO.
Why do you think this is a good idea? Why is taxing any benefit a good thing?
When the employeesrealize they have to pay $500 a month in taxes on their gold plated insurance benefit, they might negotiate to get the employer out of the medical insurance business, and buy their own.
Then, they’d buy sensible policies, not over consume medical care (which drives up costs) and take better care of themselves, because private insurers charge different rates based on risk.
Imagine people signing up for the policy that requires a $500 copay for MRI scans. We’d see far fewer instances of people getting scans for a headache. (”No thanks, Doctor, I think I’ll be OK.”)
The distorted tax treatment of medical insurance benefits causes this to be a less healthy nation with inflated health care costs.