Subject: Health benefit tax Comment: Taxing health benefits makes little sense. Our country is very unhealthy, with over a third of our population being obese. The percentage of workers choosing to be uninsured due to costs is increasing, and more employers cannot afford to offer reasonable health benefits. Now you desire to increase those costs even further and penalize people for electing health coverage? I would urge you to consider how to incentivize employers to contribute financially to appropriate health care and to continue allowing Section 125 pre-tax health premiums. American workers are more stressed, broke, unhealthy, and ambivalent about lifestyle choices than ever, and they need incentives to break away from that trend, not to continue down roads that will ultimately lead to higher costs and more severe, costly, and even tragic results. |