Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Dick Young’s Safe America
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • Critical Race Theory
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money

Your Health Insurance—Get the Boss Out

July 15, 2014 By Debbie Young

Debs-PhotoWhy is it that your boss is determining what health-care package is right for you, asks Michael D. Tanner, a senior fellow at Cato Institute. Mr. Tanner explains that health insurance was offered as a perk during WWII. Because of the significant worker shortage, President Roosevelt imposed wage and price controls, which prevented employers from competing for workers by raising salaries. As a way around this, employers offered non-wage benefits, including health insurance, to woo workers.

In 1953, the IRS’s ruling that employer-provided health insurance was not taxable exacerbated the problem. Rather than raising salaries (taxable), employers began offering health insurance (nontaxable) to workers.

Mr. Tanner reminds readers that two problems arise with employer-based health insurance: (1) It hides the true costs of health care and can lead to overuse of health benefits. (2) Health insurance is often not portable. If you should lose your job, you might also lose your health insurance, especially if you have a preexisting condition.

But what is more insidious, using Hobby Lobby as an example, is that your boss has the power to determine what is or is not part of your insurance plan. As Mr. Tanner notes, “The government’s answer, of course, is simply to mandate that certain benefits, in this case contraceptives, be included. But that merely substitutes the government’s judgment for your boss’s. Thus we infringe on your employer’s desires and your own, leaving both of you at the mercy of politicians.”

Read here from Mr. Tanner what changes need to be made to the tax treatment of health insurance and why both the right and left, in a perfect world, could “agree to start transitioning away from employer-provided insurance and into a system where each of us owns personal and portable insurance, independent of our job.”

Employer-provided insurance is problematic for several reasons. Most significantly, it hides much of the true cost of health care from consumers, encouraging over consumption. Basing insurance on employment also means that if you lose your job, you are likely to end up uninsured. And once you’ve lost insurance, it can be hard to get new coverage, especially if you have a pre-existing condition.

But, in the context of Hobby Lobby, employer-provided insurance is even more insidious: It gives your boss the power to determine what is and is not included in your insurance plan. The government’s answer, of course, is simply to mandate that certain benefits, in this case contraceptives, be included. But that merely substitutes the government’s judgment for your boss’s. Thus we infringe on your employer’s desires and your own, leaving both of you at the mercy of politicians.

Instead of fighting over religious liberty vs. contraceptive coverage, both sides should agree to start transitioning away from employer-provided insurance and into a system where each of us owns personal and portable insurance, independent of our job.

Getting there requires changing the tax treatment of health insurance so that employer-provided insurance is treated the same as other compensation for tax purposes: that is, as taxable income. At the same time, to offset the increased tax, workers should receive a standard deduction, a tax credit, or expanded Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), regardless of whether they receive insurance through their job or purchase it on their own.

As a result of this shift in tax policy, employers would gradually substitute higher wages for insurance, allowing workers to shop for the insurance policy that most closely match their needs. That insurance would be more likely to be true insurance — protecting the worker against catastrophic risk, while requiring out-of-pocket payment for routine, low-dollar costs. And it would belong to the worker, not the employer, meaning that workers would be able to take it from job to job and would not lose it if they became unemployed.

But it would also mean that workers, not their bosses, would decide what benefits they want to pay for. People could have contraceptive coverage or any other kind of coverage if we wanted it and were willing to pay for it.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Democrats Try to Stop Short Term Health Insurance Coverage
  • Obama Promises To Lower Health Insurance Premiums by $2,500 Per Year
  • The Health of Cities
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • Our Daily Bread Threatened? - May 23, 2022
  • Joe Biden – Malicious, Incompetent, a Wannabe Left Wing Ideologue? - May 20, 2022
  • What Would We Do without the Experts? - May 19, 2022

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Americans Fleeing High Tax States for Growth Corridors
  • How Can You Maximize Natural Immunity to Viruses?
  • Government Should Be Small, Laws Unobtrusive, and Men Left Alone
  • “The Goal”: Strong Families, Resilient Faith, Thriving Middle Class.
  • Marry Compound Interest, Divorce Market Timing
  • “An Epic Struggle Over the Definition of America”
  • DEATH SPIRAL: Crime Soars in Democrats’ #DEFUNDTHEPOLICE Cities
  • Florida: Enjoy Certain Freedoms and Individual Liberties
  • Making America Great Again Is What America Wants
  • YOU DESERVE FREEDOM: Your Hard Work Will Make It Happen

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Watch Out for Your Worst Enemy
  • Big Banks Adopting Blockchain for Short-Term Trading
  • Job Market Survival Advice for Graduates and for Those YOU Love
  • BULLWHIPPED? Inventory Overhang Could Slow Growth in Certain Sectors
  • BUY THE DIPS? Can You Catch a Ginsu Knife?
  • MARKET TURNING: Canada’s Housing Market Turmoil
  • “I’ve Been with Richard Young for Over 30 Years Now”
  • All-Powerful Money Managers Voting YOUR Money Targeted by Senate GOP
  • HORDING CASH: Funds Hold the Highest Level of Cash Since 9/11
  • COMMODITY CRUNCH: Will Tesla Buy a Cobalt Mine?

The Supreme Court Must Always Protect the Constitution

Our Daily Bread Threatened?

Watch Out for Your Worst Enemy

Farmer Tells Steve Bannon Biden’s Inflation Is Ruining His Business

PARTY’S OVER JOE: Republicans Crush Democrats in Local Elections

Joe Biden – Malicious, Incompetent, a Wannabe Left Wing Ideologue?

Copyright © 2022 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives