Employer Provided Health Insurance
You buy your own auto insurance, your own homeowners insurance, and your own life insurance. Why, then, do we allow our employers to buy something as private as our healthcare?
Because they can get a better deal for us? Because they care more about us? Or perhaps, as many would argue, if they didn’t have insurance through their employer, they probably wouldn’t have insurance at all. So, why doesn’t the employer provide auto, home, and life insurance as well? Read on… I’ll tell you why!
“The problems with our health care system are not the result of too little government intervention,” according to Dr. Ron Paul, “but rather too much.” It’s time to rethink the whole system of HMOs and managed care set up by government interference in health care dating to the 1970s. This entire unnecessary level of corporatism rakes off profits and worsens the quality of care, says Dr. Paul.
“One big problem arises from the 1974 ERISA law, which grants tax benefits to employers for providing health care, while not allowing similar incentives for individuals. This results in the illogical coupling between employment and health insurance. As such, government removed the market incentive for health insurance companies to cater to the actual health-care consumer. As a greater amount of government and corporate money has been used to pay medical bills, costs have risen artificially out of the range of most individuals.”
In 1957, the federal marginal income tax rate was 91%. Corporate executives, particularly those in the 91% bracket, told their employers they didn’t want to be payed more money because they had to pay the government $9,100 in taxes for a $10.000 raise. So the corporate executives followed by the labor unions went to Washington and obtained the right that if their company paid for their healthcare, they wouldn’t get taxed on the benefit.
So, if you’re employed with an income in the upper half, and work for a company that pays your healthcare, the federal government ends up paying half your healthcare. The benefit you get, you don’t pay income taxes on. In fact, the only reason employers pay our healthcare is because they pay non-taxable benefits on healthcare. Further, we are forced to buy healthcare from our employer because we get a 2:1 advantage over buying the insurance privately, because of the income tax deduction.
The working mother with three children working for a company that does not provide healthcare has to earn two dollars to buy her children $1 worth of healthcare.
We should immediately stop this unfair practice and should give a tax deduction to anybody who buys their own healthcare.
When we give a tax deduction to people who buy their own health care, the first thing that is going to happen is that every employee working at a company that provides healthcare is going to get a pay raise! Assuming the employer has been paying $5,000 a year for your insurance and now pays you the $5,000, you can take that money and start shopping for PERSONAL health care insurance.
Assuming your healthcare insurance is now costing you $5,000 a year, by increasing your deductible, you can reduce your premium. For example, say you get a $2,000 deductible plan and reduce your premium $3,000, you are immediately ahead $1,000.
And, insurance consumers will pay more attention to what they are paying for. When they discover a particular drug, doctor, or procedure is too expensive they will look for another option. People would start comparison shopping for health care matters (insurance, doctor visits, etc.). In the present health care system, who cares what the costs are? Why should you care since someone else is paying for it. If you were paying for it, you will be more involved in finding the lowest cost health care services and wouldn’t stand for those people overcharging for their goods and services.
In other words, the health care industry would be forced to be more efficient and competition would drive healthcare prices down. Get the employer out of health care and allow entrepreneurs deliver a better product for a lower cost. Our brightest minds would start focusing on more efficient ways to deliver health care, doctors & hospitals would have new incentives to invest in new equipment, technologies and procedures. Service might actually come to the health care industry! Health costs would actually start going down.
Problem – Reaction – Solution
The elite ruling class have pretty effectively been manipulating dumbed down Americans to join their New World Order program of universal health care using a technique called the Hegelian Dialectic. The corporate/government cooperative created the problem in the first place with their ERISA law, tax laws, and regulatory agencies driving good doctors out of practice and forcing them into the Corporate sector where profits are put ahead of people. Access to health care services declined and costs rose.
As the corporate health care monopoly grew, drug companies and HMOs continue to lobby Congress for more socialized medicine and more money. As more fiat money is poured in to the health care system by the Federal Reserve, prices skyrocket, services decline, and more and more desperate people react by demanding relief.
As usual, government intervention in the private market failed to deliver the promised benefits and caused the consequences we now suffer, but Congress never blames itself for the problems created by bad laws. Instead, we are told more government – in the form of “universal coverage” – is the solution.