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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Taxing health benefits isn't a bad thing -- if it's done right


    By MI Health Facts, Section News
    Posted on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 12:42:25 PM EST
    Tags: health care (all tags)

    The Lansing State Journal reports on proposals to tax health care benefits provided by employers.

    Michigan employers have been more generous than most in providing health insurance coverage to their workers, picking up the fifth-highest share of the premium cost, according to the most recent figures available.

    That benefit has been provided tax-free to employees. But that could change.

    The exclusion of employer-provided health care from taxable wages is the nation's biggest tax benefit. The hundreds of billions of dollars in potential revenue is being eyed as one way to help pay for extending health care coverage.

    "We should look at ways to modify the current tax exclusion so that it provides the right incentives," said Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat working on a way to pay for changes to the health care system. "We should look at ways to make it fairer and more equitable for everyone."


    Although Americans are generally opposed to taxing health benefits, according to the article, they also seem to be opposed to having to rely on employer-provided health coverage. President Obama has made it clear that his administration also favors individual coverage that doesn't depend on employment to reduce the number of uninsured in America.

    Leveling the playing field between employer-provided health care and individual plans is a good thing, but only if it's done right. Simultaneous tax breaks should ensure that Americans' checkbooks aren't left any worse off by a policy designed to help increase insurance.

    Cross-posted to MI Health Facts.

    < Developer gave tens of thousands to Dems protecting MSP HQ boondoggle | Detroit News suffers from psychological condition (or should apologize) >


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    All Obama Statements Have An Expiration Date (none / 0) (#1)
    by steve on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 01:09:01 PM EST
    The problem with taxing my EARNED benefits to GIVE to someone who wants government health care (aside from it being a Marxist philosophy) is they will need to find something else to tax when people leave the taxed private insurance and move to the government sponsored health care.

    The only question I have is have you been to an Airport lately? Do you really want the same people who run the TSA to handle your medical care?

    http://motorcitytimes.com/mct/now-obama-wants-to-tax-your-health-insurance-benefits/

    http://motorcitytimes.com/mct/video-raising-taxes-is-the-best-way-to-pay-for-health-care/

    Steve

    Campaign payback? (none / 0) (#2)
    by KG One on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 01:58:05 PM EST
    The latest I heard on this charlie-foster is the kow-towing to the unions who helped make the false prophets presidency possible.

    Now, how do you explain this shakedown to the majority of Americans who do not belong to a union?

    IF done right ... (none / 0) (#4)
    by theclassiclib on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:12:09 PM EST
    I've read a lot of smart people proposing this type of thing, and while at first it sounds good, it's actually a bad idea - It entirely misses the point!

    Health care costs are too high because of government, and incomes are too low because of government.  Think about your paycheck for a moment ...

    Using rounded estimates for the sake of simple example, let's say you make $100 per week.  It costs your employer about $112 per week to employ you, yet your take-home pay is only about $70.  Boy, that missing $42 (or 42% of your pay) sure seems to be the single biggest problem Americans face today in my mind.

    Health care is the most government-regulated industry outside education (hmmm, a correlation of failure?).  Regulation = bureaucracy = increased costs.  So the real health care problem is 2-fold:

    1. The government takes too much of a person's income.

    2. The government creates too many additional health care costs.

    I say it's time to focus not on the government, but on the real issues of "we the people!"  This starts with people keeping their incomes!  Believe me ... if the government goes belly-up, it won't nearly be as painful as if you personally go belly-up.  Too much emphasis is placed on government these days.  Our Founder's weren't wrong - government is not your friend.

    Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington, America's first president.

    "We the people" have been screwed over for too long!  It's time we focus on ourselves!

    Brilliant, insightful post! Great blog! (none / 0) (#5)
    by Jack McHughs Blog on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:27:38 PM EST
    That's my completely neutral, unbiased opinion of this post by my Mackinac Center colleague Janet Neilson, and the new Mackinac health care blog that she is creating daily content for. :-)

    Do check out the blog and make it one of your regular stops in the months ahead, as we discover whether America will follow Europe into the unsustainble socialist paradise of a government-run health care system and rationing.

    Actually... (none / 0) (#7)
    by MI Health Facts on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 03:05:49 PM EST
    Taxing employer-provided health benefits the same way that we would tax health benefits that someone buys on their own is hardly socialism - in fact, it would bring us closer to the incentives originally created by the market and helps to solve the bias that's created by the existing tax structure. Plenty of free market advocates would like to see a return to equal treatment for all health plans.

    What the elimination of tax exemption for employer-provided plans would fund - if anything - is an income tax cut to try to leave employees in the same (or better, with a bigger income tax cut) financial position - it should not fund more meddling by government in health care.

    Taxing health benefits is a bad thing! (none / 0) (#10)
    by Eric T on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 05:25:04 PM EST
    Raising my taxes to pay for someone elses health care is the wrong way to go about this.

    If people don't have health care, let them go to an Army base, and get their health care there. Or a university and let the students practice on them.
    Both the military and colleges are funded with tax money, why not let these institutions that already cost taxpayer trillions, jump in and help provide health care to the uninsured.

    MI Health Facts said: (none / 0) (#12)
    by RushLake on Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 06:16:55 AM EST
    "I would then explain that this change should be accompanied by an income tax break so that they would see more take-home money on their paycheck."

    And RushLake would point out that right now, politicians from both parties in Lansing are talking about closing tax loopholes to raise "investment" dollars. Recently (yesterday I believe) Andy Meisner, Democrat Macomb Treasurer, stated words to the effect that if all these loopholes for business were effective we'd be seeing jobs gains in Michigan. So when they need to rob us for more money, the "loophole" for this "free government" health care could get closed too.

    Are we sure MI Health Facts isn't really Robert Gibbs?

    Amen! (none / 0) (#13)
    by theclassiclib on Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 02:21:38 AM EST
    Get an already meddling bureaucracy out of healthcare.  Enough with the finding creative taxation schemes already.

    I'm with you!  If I hear one more "policy" idea, I'm gonna explode!  From this day forward, I officially shut my ears to anyone with a "plan," "idea," or some other Rube Goldberg scheme.

    A "Republican" with a policy idea, is nothing but a Democrat.  "We the people" aren't that stupid!  And we're not gonna put up with it anymore.

    A word of warning to politicians of ALL stripes:  You're either going to REPEAL rules, regulations, and laws, or I'll fight to my last breath doing everything I can, to keep you out of office!  I've compromised with you policy wonks and politicians for too long, and I'm done.

    In the immortal words of Barry Goldwater:

    I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution ... or have failed their purpose ... or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should be attacked for neglecting my constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty, and in that cause I am doing the very best I can.

    Sad thing is ... as the government has taken over our lives, sucked our incomes dry, stole our largest industries, and spent our great grandchildrens money ... not one Republican, not a single one, has dared to utter the words freedom or liberty.

    Makes me believe they don't believe in freedom or liberty, any more than the Democrats.  All they have are more government solutions.

    Note: OK, Ron Paul and Jon Kyl talk about freedom and liberty, but they don't live in Michigan, do they?  Looks like I'll be contacting McCotter tomorrow afternoon.  Maybe I'll have to run for office myself.  I won't make a single friend in Lansing, but I'll make a lot of them throughout the rest of our great state!

    creative taxation schemes (none / 0) (#17)
    by Eric T on Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 05:36:55 PM EST
    You picked the perfect words to describe it.

    I don't know which one is worse.
    This one, cap and trade, or the National Sales tax.
    With 60 democrats in the Senate, we will probably get all three, The GOP can't stop any of these creative taxation schemes.

     I doubt the taxing will stop at these 3, you can almost count on local tax hikes on property taxes, college tuition, and everything else you can imagine as well.

    I'm sure everyone may be effected in different ways by these new policies.
     I drive a gasoline tanker, so cap and trade is the one I'm worried about most, it could put me out of a job, at some point in time or slow it down to the point where I can't get by on the hours I'm working. With no job, I won't be buying much, so the sales tax, won't matter as much, and without a job, I'll probably soon need the government health care, unemployment, food stamps, the whole 9 yards.

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