Healing Healthcare Through Tax Reform

Abstract

An economic crisis, sky-rocketing healthcare costs, and millions of Americans without health insurance combine to bring to the public square not only the possibility of a meaningful debate but the political perfect storm that might unearth entrenched partisans and bring about meaningful healthcare reform. The current taxation of expenditures for healthcare is a complex, unjust, uneconomical, and inefficient system. This article seeks to refute revisionist historians who might argue that healthcare in the workplace had no meaningful presence until World War II and to highlight the reasons for the development of employer-provided healthcare; to explain the fundamental inequities wrought by the current tax subsidies granted health benefits; to suggest reasons for reform; and to provide a framework for evaluating reform proposals.

Keywords: tax, healthcare, reform, taxation, health, insurance

JEL Classification: A13, K32, K34