• More than 60 percent of the nonelderly population in 2006 obtained health insurance coverage through their employers. About 5 percent purchased private market coverage and about 14 percent were covered by Medicaid. Nearly one-fifth were uninsured.
  Source: Health Insurance Coverage in America 2006 Data Update
  
  

• The tax code subsidizes health care by allowing an exclusion for employer-provided health insurance, letting workers pay health care costs using pre-tax dollars through flexible spending accounts, and providing deductions for health savings accounts and other medical expenses.
  Source: The President’s Proposed Standard Deduction for Health Insurance: An Evaluation
• The tax exclusion for employer-paid health insurance alone will reduce federal revenues by more than $1 trillion over the next five years.
  Source: Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2008, Analytical Perspectives
• The current tax treatment of health insurance encourages taxpayers to purchase overly generous health insurance and consequently to consume more health care than they would in an unsubsidized market.
  Source: The President's Proposed Standard Deduction for Health Insurance: An Evaluation

For more on health insurance issues, see:

Distributional Analysis of the Proposed Standard Deduction for Health Insurance shows the distributional effects of the proposal in 2009 and 2017 as well as the distribution of subsidies for health insurance under current law and under proposed law. (February 7, 2007)

Can We Buy Our Way to Health Reform? addresses the issue of spiraling health care costs and asks whether simply throwing more money into the system only exacerbates the fundamental problem of deciding what health spending is worthwhile and what is not. (June 12, 2006)

Testimony:

New Health Care Tax Proposals: Costly and Counterproductive discusses the administration’s health care proposals in the FY2007 budget. (February 13, 2006)

Tax Credits for Health Insurance examines implications of major expansions in tax credits for health insurance, starting with the President's refundable tax credit proposal. (June 23, 2005)

Tax Incentives for Health Insurance examines the data on health insurance coverage, discusses trends in coverage, and considers problems in the health insurance market and their implications for government intervention. (May 16, 2003)

Tax Subsidies for Private Health Insurance: Who Currently Benefits and What Are the Implications for New Policies? provides information about the structure and distribution of existing tax subsidies for employer-sponsored health insurance and implications for new policy options. (May 1, 2003)

Congress Spends More to Increase Number of Uninsured argues that allowing the exclusion of health insurance premiums from taxation actually increases the number of uninsured. (May 1, 2003)

First, Do No Harm: Designing Tax Incentives for Health Insurance reports health insurance coverage of the nonelderly, discusses issues involved in subsidizing health insurance, and outlines a tax credit option designed to diminish many health insurance market flaws. (May 21, 2001)

See posts about health care on TaxVox, TPC's blog

See all publications related to health insurance

See all estimates related to health insurance