Hands Off Health Care Benefits for Working Families
by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee | July 13, 2009
A letter to the editor from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee was published in the New York Times on July 12th:
To the Editor: Your assertion that “most health care economists believe that the current tax exemption for employer-provided health care should be capped or eliminated” ignores the conclusion reached by the Congressional Budget Office last December. It warned that costs would be higher for employees of companies “that had higher premiums because of the age or poor health of their employees” and that workers who lived in areas with more expensive health care would be hit hard.
Taxing benefits is a “blame the victims” approach that will do nothing to reallocate health care expenditures more rationally. It’s simply another example of tax code writers protecting special interests by sticking it to the little guy.
Congress should look at the favorable tax treatment afforded to capital gains and dividend income, which costs the government $178 billion a year. Unlike the tax treatment of health benefits, which affects a broad swath of the American public, a very narrow economically privileged slice of taxpayers benefits from this favorable treatment.
President McEntee also issued a statement this morning on the urgent need for health care with a public option:
Real reform must include a high quality public health insurance plan as an option for families so that they are not at the mercy of insurance companies. A public health insurance plan will operate more cost-effectively, lower costs and drive quality improvements. It will force efficiencies and innovation in private insurance coverage.
