In case you haven’t heard, ObamaCare is the hottest topic of discussion to come out of Washington since the inauguration of the first black President less than 9 months ago. Naturally, we at FreeFairTaxBook.org could not help but jump into the discussion.
As this article on a market-based health care reform alternative points out, one of the main causes of our current health care debacle is, you guessed it, income tax laws. Back in the day, the IRS decided that income earned in the form of health insurance should not be taxed. This provided an incentive for businesses to provide lavish health packages to workers. From this point forward, health insurance was linked to employment. No job = no insurance. As the article explains, this has contributed significantly to many of the problems currently associated with the US Health Care System.
Under the FairTax there would be no income tax, and thus, employers would have less incentive to provide expensive health insurance packages to workers. This would increase the market for individual insurance packages, which would no doubt be more custom-tailored to each individuals health needs, which would in turn drive down prices in the private insurance market.
It truly is amazing what kind of repurcussions tax policy has on the day to day lives of Americans.
