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Changing tax treatment of employer health benefits

By STAFF WRITER

Published 1/28/2009 » More From This Issue

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- 1/20/2010 1:42:46 PM
- Kevin Smith
- Tax treatment for employer benefit plans
- Employers of every size have come under extreme pressure to contain the cost of providing rich benfit packages in general and in particular group medical coverage. The idea of imposing taxes on "rich " benefit plans is absurd. The continual rise of providing Health care coverage will continue to rise with or without so called Health Care Reform. Taxing a common employer practice is an easy bureaucratic penalty to successful companies. The true issues of reform are not being put into the forefront of the current proposed options. The keys to reform are as follows: 1) cover the uninsured but make them pay something significant based on their income and family size. It is a priviledge not a right. The costs are high so everyone must have skin in the game based on their ability to pay. 2) Have a massive effort on improving fitness across all ages and income brackets. Fitness is a lifelong endeavor that is not limited to those with high disposable income. Eating betterand the development in schools for SELF CONTROL skills must be a priority, along with developing responsibility and achievement skills. 3) Tort Reform there needs to be higher threshholds developed before lawsuits can be entertained. 4) Administration with a single system for both paper and electronic submissions. Real reform is desperately needed and is too easily knocked down, but I don't think the "give me a bill any bill" approach is correct.