Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

The Real Problem of Covering the ‘Uninsured’, Pt.5 – Precarious situations to be mindful of.

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Over the next five years that figure is expected to well up to $250 billion. If every applicable person were to avail this health insurance tax credit offer, the loss in government revenues could exceed $500 billion. This losing figure is already over three times the amount of the current loss from the employer-based health insurance tax breaks when not including Medicaid and Medicare. Trying to compute the impact these refundable credits have, as far as public spending, as well as on individual households and businesses, proves unwieldy. Even though we know that gains and losses will abound, it’s particularly difficult to anticipate their settling points. The following, are some of the reasons and emphasize why it’s so important to keep a close eye on new health insurance/care insights as they come available:

1) If McCain succeeds in repealing the employer-based health insurance tax break, we don’t know how many would lose or leave their employer-based plans. For sure, some employers would give it up and some employees would go elsewhere anyway. Also, it’s hard to know how much the employer will pass on their net losses they incur, to their employees in lower pay, in more expensive premiums or in reduced benefits. For those who stay, it’s also difficult to predict how much of the corporate savings would get passed on to the employee. The stakes here could be very high and hold serious consequences with a destabilized infrastructure. The mainstay of this 60-year old system, represents about 60% of our nation’s insured, who are relying on the stability of employer-based health insurance. According to latest census figures, some 160 million Americans depend on this kind of coverage.

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