John McCain is getting creamed on health care because his plan is too good If I were designing a comprehensive medical insurance system from the ground up, John McCain's proposal offers a good model. He ends most of bias in the tax code favoring employer-provided coverage over the individual market. Employers could continue to deduct medical costs from payroll taxes; otherwise, medical benefits provided by employers would not be exempt from income taxes. By eliminating this distortion, the theory goes (and I buy this), individuals would pay more of the true costs of their medical benefits. This should encourage them to seek out policies that are tailored to their needs, reducing the overall medical costs. With a wide array of coverage options, it should be simple for people who now aren't insured because they can't afford coverage to buy a bare-bones policy. As the ranks of the uninsured shrank, the cost-shifting that takes place when medical providers offer services to peo...
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Showing posts from October 12, 2008