🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan25.184423.1113@ssc.com> markz@ssc.com (Mark Zenier) writes:
/Bill Campbell (bill@Celestial.COM) wrote:
/: Unfortunately the free market doesn't really apply to health care
/: in the U.S. where ``health insurance'' is really a bill paying
/: function where we pay the insurance companies instead of paying
/: for routine health car ourselves.  
/In addition, health care is considered a fringe benefit of employment.  

This is an artifact of health insurance being tax-deductible if paid for
as part of your salary, and non-deductible if paid for separately. Since
marginal tax rates are at 31%, this creates a powerful incentive to go along
with your employer's scheme, and never mind the fact that if you opt out
of your employer's coverage, you don't get the money anyway.

To address the problem, health insurance should be tax-deductible regardless.
Then, shopping for health insurance would be comparable to shopping for
home insurance, and would be independent from shopping for a job.

The tax status of health insurance is just another example of well-intentioned
government policies instead producing serious economic inefficiencies.