The Democrat's Health Insurance Plan
Tightening the link betweeen employment and insurance coverage seems exactly the wrong way to go. It's regressive to when we worked our lifetimes (or tried too) for a single employer. That age is gone. From the Labor Law Center Blog,
However, the governor’s plan also calls for a new payroll tax as well on employers in the state who do not provide health care insurance to their employees.This is mainstream, not innovative. It's a plan for yesterday's economy, not tomorrow's.
So in this way at least, the plan by Gov. Blagojevich would reinforce the employer based health care insurance system that is currently the mainstream in the country. Other plans out there, such as President Bush’s, plan in part to remove this employer based health care system.
3 comments:
At the least, individuals purchasing policies on their own should be able to deduct their policies from both state and federal taxes.
Businesses of any size can deducat the cost of health insurance, as I understand it, but even low-income (but not low enough for welfare) individuals don't get any kind of
tax benefits from buying their own insurance, which is often quite costly.
It seems crazy that the so-called poor, many of them poor by choice, get all of their medical expenses covered by taxpayers but those who are working at low paying jobs
not only have to pay market rates but can't get any kind of deduction.
The best thing Blago could do is provide income tax credits for lower and middle class individuals purchasing their own insurance in Illinois.
"The best thing Blago could do is provide income tax credits for lower and middle class individuals purchasing their own insurance in Illinois."
Seems like you support the Governor's plan, then.
According to our analysis at www.wonkish.com, there are two options for the non-poor.
They could buy in to a state pool of coverage for significantly less than it would cost in the private market (our research shows about a 60% discount) with help from the state.
Or, they get a credit/rebate for the insurance they buy through their employer.
These two would cover the most people and have the most cost of the program... by far. But people seem to only be thinking about the free coverage for the poor.
I just would like to make a suggestion. Those places that are unionized perhaps the unions can take the initiative and pay for the health care of their union members. Perhaps they need to get involved. This doesn't have to be a gov't run universal health care program. And this is one way to look at getting employees healthcare benefits.
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