Health Plan: Rubio Gets It Right
August 19, 2015
So far it’s just an editorial. But it is an editorial that proposes two bold ideas that no other Republican presidential candidate has been willing to endorse: (1) tax relief for the purchase of health insurance should be the same for everyone—whether insurance is acquired at work, in the marketplace or in an exchange, and (2) the best form of tax relief is a fixed sum tax credit.
Although Rubio is a self-described conservative, these are not right wing ideas. In fact, I believe that most health policy experts on the left and the right agree with him. (More on that below.)
For most of the post-World War II period we have had two parallel tax systems with regard to health care and health insurance. Employer sponsored health plans have been treated one way. Individually purchased health insurance has been treated a different way. Under Obamacare, we have created a third parallel system (Medicaid expansion)—all treating people at the same income level very differently.
