Employer Based Insurance Replaced by Self-Directed Policies

Good idea - put the responsibility for taking of themselves on the individual but give them control at the same time with the Health Saving Accounts, portability from one job to the next, reforming the tort system and block grants to the states for those that fall on hard times.

All this seem just common sense to make the system more affordable and workerable, the only problem of course is the Obama administration will never allow the individual the option for self direction for their insurance needs, With self direction the government loses control of the individuals personal identity and therefore can not dictate how their lives will conform to government demands.

Progressive socialism is control of options for the individual. The individual must submit to the demands of the collective, and thereby relinquish individual freedom to chose for themselves.

Should We Get Rid of Employer-Based Insurance?
Source: Michael D. Tanner, "Get Bosses Out of Health Insurance Altogether," National Review, July 9, 2014.

July 15, 2014

Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that the United States needs to do away with the employer-provided health insurance model.

Why are employers involved in health insurance in the first place?

• President Franklin Roosevelt imposed wage controls during World War II, which meant that employers could not compete with one another by offering more attractive salaries. To get around this constraint, employers began offering non-wage benefits to attract employees.
• In 1953, the IRS ruled that employer-provided health insurance would not be taxed as wage compensation. As such, employees pay taxes only on their wages, even while receiving thousands of dollars' worth of health benefits.

Today, 58.4 percent of non-elderly Americans get health insurance through their employers. But Tanner explains why employer-provided insurance creates problems:

• It encourages overconsumption, because it hides the actual costs of care from consumers.
• Losing a job means losing one's insurance. For those with preexisting conditions, gaining insurance after a job loss can be difficult.

Tanner suggests transitioning into a system of personal, portable insurance that stays with a person no matter their employment situation. How to get rid of our system of employer-provided insurance? By treating health insurance benefits as taxable income. To offset that higher tax, Tanner suggests offering taxpayers a standard tax deduction, a tax credit or a Health Savings Account.

Tanner predicts that employers would begin to offer higher wages instead of health insurance as a result of this policy change. With those higher wages, employees could shop for insurance that best fits their needs -- insurance that they could take with them from job to job.