Tax subsidies for employment-related health insurance: estimates for 2006.
Employment-related health insurance is subsidized through exemptions from federal and state income taxes, as well as from taxes for Social Security and Medicare. Proposals to modify this subsidy are a perennial subject of policy debate. We present tax-subsidy projections from a new data resource constructed using a statistical linkage between the establishment and household components of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). We project that the total federal and state tax subsidy in 2006 for employment-related coverage of active workers will exceed 200 billion dollars. We present per worker tax-subsidy estimates and an analysis of insurance incidence by establishment characteristics.
Selden
Thomas M
TM
Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, Division of Modeling and Simulation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in Rockville, Maryland, USA. tselden@ahrq.gov
Gray
Bradley M
BM
D000328:Adult; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007183:Income Tax / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D019464:Tax Exemption; D014481:United States