Tax Policy Center Newsletter
January 23, 2007
Taxes and Health Insurance: Analysis and Policy
Sponsored by the Tax Policy Center and the American Tax Policy Institute
February 29, 2008
Falk Auditorium, Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC
Health care promises to be a central issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign. Candidates of the two parties divide sharply on whether and how to use the tax system to help reform the health system. Please join us on February 29 for a conference on “Taxes and Health Insurance: Analysis and Policy” to be held at the Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. The conference is cosponsored by the American Tax Policy Institute and the Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center. Some of the nation’s foremost experts on tax and health policy will present results of research evaluating the effectiveness of tax policy in expanding health insurance coverage and controlling health care spending. CBO director, Peter Orszag, will deliver the luncheon address.
Seating is limited, so please register online or contact us at info@taxpolicycenter.org or 202-261-5538 as soon as possible.
| 9:00–10:15 am | Setting the Stage
Background and history of the tax exclusion
Author: Robert Helms (American Enterprise Institute)
How current tax treatment influences health insurance coverage and health care prices
Authors: Leonard Burman, Bowen Garrett, and Surachai Khitatrakun (Urban Institute)
Discussants: Daniel Halperin (Harvard) and Anup Malani (Chicago) |
| 10:15–10:30 am | Coffee Break |
| 10:30–11:45 am | Economic and Behavioral Responses to Tax Incentives
What behavioral economics has to say about impact of current system and reforms
Authors: Richard Zeckhauser (Harvard) and Jeff Liebman (Harvard)
How flexible spending accounts affect health care use
Authors: Arik Levinson (Georgetown), William Jack (Georgetown), and Jessica Vistnes (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
Discussants: Jonathan Gruber (MIT) and Ed McCaffery (USC) |
| 12:00–1:00 pm | Lunch
Luncheon speaker: Peter Orszag (CBO) |
| 1:15–2:30 pm | Reform Proposals
Reform proposal I: tax breaks for all health care spending
Authors: John Cogan (Hoover), Glenn Hubbard (Columbia), and Daniel Kessler (Stanford)
Reform proposal II: using federal tax policy to mitigate problems in nongroup market
Author: Jason Furman (Brookings)
Discussants: William Gale (Brookings) and Emmett Keeler (RAND Corporation) |
| 2:30–2:45 pm | Break |
| 2:45–4:00 pm | Administrative Issues
Administrative issues I: challenges of the current system
Authors: Mary Hevener (Baker & McKenzie) and Chip Kerby (McDermott, Will & Emery)
Administrative issues II: challenges of reform proposals
Author: Janet Holtzblatt (CBO)
Discussants: Stan Dorn (Urban Institute) and Sherry Glied (Columbia) |
| 4:00–5:15 pm | Health Savings Accounts
Health savings accounts I: short- and long-term effects of health savings accounts
Author: Lisa Clemans-Cope (Urban Institute)
Health savings accounts II: interaction of HSAs and retirement saving
Authors: Henry J. Aaron (Brookings) and Surachai Khitatrakun, (Urban Institute)
Discussants: Douglas Stives (Monmouth University) and Bob Carroll (Tax Foundation) |
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