Health Insurance Tax Incentives:

The Cure or the Disease?

Tuesday, May 2, 2006
12:00 - 1:30 pm

The Urban Institute
5th floor, Katharine Graham Conference Room
2100 M Street, NW
Washington, DC

The United States spends $200 billion each year on tax incentives for health insurance. Yet more than 45 million people lack health coverage. President Bush has proposed tax incentives tied to high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts; critics would retarget tax incentives to favor low-income households and small businesses.

At this First Tuesday forum, panelists examined these and other issues regarding the best course of treatment for the nation's failing health care system.

• Does it make sense to use the tax system as a major instrument of support for health insurance coverage among working Americans?
• What are the advantages and risks involved in subsidizing insurance that individuals buy themselves, outside of employment?
• What barriers prevent employers from offering health insurance and individuals from purchasing it in the non-group market?
• What special problems face those with chronic illnesses and how would current policies and reform proposals affect them?
• How does tax policy affect the cost of healthcare and how much could reform help (or hurt)?
• Are HSAs the market-driven solution the doctor ordered, or untested medicine with dangerous side effects?

PANELISTS:

Katherine Baicker            Audio
Member, White House Council of Economic Advisers

Leonard Burman            Audio
Senior fellow, Urban Institute; codirector, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Robert Helms            Audio
Resident scholar, Health Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Len Nichols            Audio
Director, Health Policy Program, New America Foundation

David Wessel            Audio
Deputy Washington bureau chief, Wall Street Journal (moderator)

Question & Answer:          Audio1     Audio2