Tuesday, July 1, 2008
AMA Supports Tax Changes to Promote Insurance
By Grace-Marie Turner
Filed As: Health Care
The American Medical Association was one of the first major organizations, under the leadership of then-president Dr. Stormy Johnson, to see the wisdom of refundable tax credits to help the uninsured purchase health insurance. Over time, the AMA passed a number of follow-on recommendations to support the policy, some of which are now overtaken by events and others of which contradict other policies.The new report standardizes the AMA policy and clarifies its position, which is quite bold.
The long-standing AMA policy supports replacing the tax exclusion for employment-based health insurance with refundable, advanceable tax credits or vouchers. Further, the AMA would income-adjust the credits to provide more generous assistance to those with lower incomes.
While the AMA does not specify dollar amounts for the credits or cut-off points, the policy could mean that their own members could face higher tax bills because they would lose their current tax break for health insurance but their incomes likely would be too high to qualify for a credit. Some members are distressed over this.
There is much more to the AMA policy, which also involves integration with HSAs and payroll taxes. Here is a link to the AMA documents.
- posted by Grace-Marie Turner
- 7:27 am
- 0 comment
| SPN Headquarters: 2020 North 14th Street Ste 250 Arlington, VA 22201 Phone: (703) 243-1655 | West Coast Office: PO Box 5208 Richmond, CA 94805 Phone: (510) 965-9700 |
