NU Online News Service, Dec. 23, 2003, 6:06 p.m. EST – The AAHP-HIAA, Washington, is defending the value of using tax breaks to encourage U.S. employers to provide employee health coverage.[@@]
"Employers do a pretty good job of reflecting employees' wants and needs," says AAHP-HIAA spokesman Mohit Gose.
Gose gave an interview to National Underwriter to respond to questions about a new paper by Tom Miller, a senior health economist on the staff of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, that attacks the practice of letting employers deduct health insurance premiums from taxable income.
Miller, a former director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, Washington, repeats arguments he made while at Cato that current subsidies for employer-sponsored coverage hide the true cost of health care from insured employees and distort the health insurance market in many other ways.
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, has issued a statement endorsing Miller's analysis.
"We can't preserve the status quo for another 60 years," Bennett says. "We must give greater consideration to alternatives to employer-paid group health plans."
