Subject: Taxation of Employer Provided Health Benefits Comment: You should be aware that employers are absolutely aching for an excuse to get out of the business of sponsoring health plans. If you make these benefits taxable, and put them on a par with taxable cash wages, then employers will have one more reason to just pay employees more and leave them to their own devices. While that may sound like a great idea to a laissez-faire economist, employers are the only ones holding the healthcare system together today, the only ones forcing the quality issue, the only ones talking daily with their employees about wellness. Once employers withdraw from the healthcare industry, it will collapse and the mess will go on for decades. I can't imagine that that is what you are attempting to accomplish. |