Administration leaves door ajar for taxing health care benefits
Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod indicated that the White House is willing to consider various proposals to tax health care benefits. However, he stressed that the president's proposal to limit the tax deduction for charitable contributions made by those earning above $250,000 remains the best way to go.
Axelrod, appearing on ABC's' This Week on June 28, said there are a number of formulations in the health care reform plan so the administration will wait and see. He maintained that keeping the legislative process moving along is the most important thing at this point.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, at a press briefing on June 29, said the administration understands that working with Congress requires flexibility and many participants at a very large table in order to make progress on health care reform. Gibbs, when pressed by reporters, did not rule out White House support for taxing health benefits but responded that administration will let the process work its way through.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking member Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, on May 18 released policy options for financing reform of the health care system that contained changes in the exclusion for employer-provided benefits. Proposals included capping the exclusion based on the value of health insurance policy or the income level of the employee eligible for the exclusion, capping the exclusion based on both the value of the health insurance policy and income level, converting the employer-provided health insurance exclusion to an individual tax deduction or credit, and grandfathering existing plans so that benefits provided under existing collective bargaining agreements are not limited.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
(Submitted July 2, 2009)
<p>Administration leaves door ajar for taxing health care benefits Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod indicated that the White House is willing to consider various proposals to tax health care benefits. However, he stressed that the president's proposal to limit the</p>
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