No new taxes on those under $250k

[Fern]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: Jaskalas

Originally posted by: quest55720
More change we can believe in. I can see Obama making private insurance so un desirable he can ram through his shitty UHC.

It'll just become so taxed and expensive that NO employer is ever going to provide it. Thus making UHC the only solution left standing.

This won't affect the cost to employERS at all. A company that pays for a health benefits will still be able to deduct the cost from their gross revenue. It's the employEES that will pay more, as the portion of premiums paid by the employer will be taxable income to the employee.

So I don't see this tax change reducing the number of employers that offer health care benefits.

Frankly, I'm not sure that this tax change - as described in the article - would affect the demand for health care at all.

Now, if there were some incentive to shift people to high-deductible plans (at least $2500 or so), THAT would certainly reduce demand for health care.

See the underlined portion: Have you confirmed that shira?

I haven't seen any details on this, but will point-out that you can just as easily make those HI expenses non-deductible at the employER level. If so, employees won't experience any new taxable income; it'll be employers who do.

Also, if it is done to employees will they have to remove HI as a deductible medical expense from itemized deductions (Sch A) to raise the kind of revenue they are talking about? What about retirees who are on their former employers medical plan? They should be taxed as well. I don't see that as highly popular (to say the least). And I think of all the state/local government employees with Cadillac- type plans who are gonna freak out. They always complain about their pay, but seem to forget about the uber employee benefits package they get.

'Big Picture' type Angle I realize that they are thrashing around in an effort to find more money for government but in the bigpicture I don't readily see how this is necessarily good for our health care. I expect that the cadillac plans that exec's (and others) get are expensive and profitable for HI companies; where will they make up for that lost revenue? Will they charge more for basic plans? Will these new guidelines effectively amount to reducing HI coverage for some people? Is that he proper direction/result when implementing UHC? Isn't that a bit contradictory? Is increasing deductibles just transfering the costs from one person down to another? Does it in any way adversely affect the whole the savings proclaimed to exist from early detection? Will people not go to the doctor because of higher deductibles? Is that what UHC proponents want?

Mostly what I see here is reduced coverage and shifted costs. Not much benefit to HC in general IMO.

Fern