Posted: Oct 14, 2005 By: David Isaacson

Subject: Health Care Benefits Tax Reform

Comment: As the individual charged with evaluating, selecting and administering our company's health care plan, I will attest that consideration to tax health care benefits is the wrong approach. We have a rather small company (16 employees) whose health care coverage has escalated an average of 30% per year. This offers us, today, no more value than it did four years ago, yet our costs have more than doubled. One or two individuals with poorer health conditions affect the cost we all incur; both on the company and the individuals. Taxing this false value puts an unfair and disproportionate burden on employees, particularly those with families covered by the plan.