Health Care Reform Proposals Should Offer Tax Benefits, Deductions

OAKBROOK, IL – June 8, 2009 – U.S. Senators have begun drafting proposals for health care reform aimed at improving access to health care, but so far they are leaving out two important details: how to cover the uninsured and how to pay for it.

Since the discussion began, many ideas about how to pay for universal health care have been proposed, including curbing the tax deduction employers receive for offering benefits and taxing workers’ employer-sponsored health benefits.

Delta Dental strongly urges lawmakers to reject any proposal to tax or otherwise limit employer-sponsored health benefits or, at the very least, to establish a separate tax preference to ensure that prevention-oriented, cost-effective dental benefits are offered through employer-sponsored health plans.

Faced with the loss of a tax deduction, employers will either lower benefits coverage or pass the added cost on to their employees. Employees, in turn, might drop less expensive preventive coverage, like dental insurance, in favor of more inflationary medical coverage.

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