Tax health care benefits (remember "only rich people can afford 401ks "MIA")

[WhiskeyGirl]

At the last in a series of public forums on health care reform, Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said scaling back the tax-free status of employer-provided health care benefits must be considered.

"There are ways to enact health care reform that can bend the cost curve in a very significant way that provides health insurance reform, which this country desperately needs, and also covers all Americans," Mr. Baucus said before a panel of senators, health care and tax specialists, and others representing outside groups in the health-care-reform debate.

It's "a step in the wrong direction," said Gerald Shea of the AFL-CIO labor federation, who was a participant in the panel discussion.

"We cannot ask people who traded wages for health benefits to pay more for their coverage without undertaking a serious effort to lower costs," said Mr. Shea, who serves as the AFL-CIO's health care policy specialist.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/13/taxing-worker-benefits-possible/

Union members must be rich.   

[WhiskeyGirl]

Why is it -

If you're a working person, your employers considers health care part of your total compensation package?  You don't pay taxes, but it's part of the cost of you as an employee.

If you're a working person, you may pay steep taxes to help pay for those without health care.  People on Medicare and Medicaid, along with any number of other social safety net programs. 

If you're a working person, you may pay indirectly for all those folks receiving free care in the ER.  Folks with allergies, the sniffles, illegal aliens, visitors, scammers, and others.  It's included in the price providers bill your insurance or your employers self funded program - in the end, it's still part of your total compensation package.

What if you're a working person and don't make enough buy coverage, qualify for Medicare/Medicaid, or have employer sponsored coverage?  How do you get care?  Does the hospital ER expect you to charge it or make arrangements?  Do you and your family go without?  Maybe you end up filing bankruptcy?

What if the government sent the visiting people who aren't paying for care in the ER home?  How much money would that save taxpayers and workers?  What if their entire family went home to?  Or, government found a some private person to take financial responsibility for all these folks?

Radical ideas for uncommon times?