Example Of Critical Thinking On Tax And Health Insurance In Healthcare Management

Should health insurance benefits be tax-exempt? Do you agree with the Affordable Care Act’s provision that will tax high-cost health insurance plans in 2018?
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is one of the flagship policies that the Obama Administration has been trying to successfully pull through for years. Fortunately, it has already been ratified as a law in 2010 . The main goal of the PPACA is to increase the number of individuals who have healthcare insurance, thereby making it more affordable and accessible . There are numerous perspectives on how the question whether health insurance benefits be tax-exempt or not can be analyzed. Mostly, policy makers analyze it by focusing on the economic implications of their decisions .
One alternative way to look at that question is to check whether the main goal of the health insurance benefits would still be achieved fully if the government is to impose tax on such benefits. These health insurance benefits are supposed to benefit the target population (those without coverage) and if the government is going to tax those used to be uncovered people, then that can only complicate the situation. If someone really has to be taxed, it must be the insurance companies and not the ones receiving the benefits. Benefits from insurance services are different from income, after all. The same is true regarding the plan of the government to tax high-cost health insurance plans in 2016 . If the government is going to impose additional taxes on high-cost insurance plans, then some of the effects and or perks of those high-cost insurance plans may only be negated—even to the point that these supposed benefits would not be able to pose as benefits anymore. If someone or something really has to be taxed, then that would be the companies that make profit from offering insurance services, or in this case, the insurance corporations.

References

Carey, M. (2014). GOP Senators' New Health Overhaul Plan would tax some workers' benefits. Capsules the KHN Blog.
Davis, T., Williams, B., & Sorensen, L. (n.d.). Affordable Care Act. Monroe College.
Kocher, R., & Adashi, E. (2011). Hospital Readmissions and the Affordable Care Act: Paying for coordinated quality care. JAMA, 1794-1795.
Kocher, R., Emanuel, E., & DeParle, N. (2010). The Affordable Care Act and the future of Clinical Medicine: Opportunities and Challenges. Annals of Internal Medicine, 536-539.