ERIC ED317708: Current Economic Issues in Employee Benefits. Backgr... | |
by ERIC | |
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A multitude of public policy issues currently surround | |
the tax treatment of employee benefits, particularly | |
since the tax-favored status of employer contributions to | |
pensions and health insurance has been blamed for a | |
shrinking tax base that has exacerbated the federal | |
budget deficit, an inefficient and bloated health-care | |
sector, overinsurance by many recipients of employer- | |
provided health insurance, rising health care costs, and | |
a tax system made more regressive because those who | |
receive tax-favored employee benefits tend to be in | |
higher-income households than those who do not. A | |
relatively low cap on health insurance contributions-- | |
perhaps at an employer contribution of $1,125 annually-- | |
would improve efficiency and has at least five points in | |
its favor: (1) it partially addresses the problems of | |
rising health care, overuse of the system, and an | |
inefficiently large health-care sector; (2) it addresses | |
the concern that the tax base will continue to be eroded | |
as health care costs rise and as employer contributions | |
increase; (3) it would not limit or reduce access to | |
basic health care by currently or potentially insurable | |
workers; (4) it would imply an improvement in the equity | |
of the tax system; and (5) it would not foreclose the | |
option of mandating health insurance benefits. (The | |
document contains 85 references, 11 tables, 1 figure, and | |
appendices that discuss data problems in research on | |
employee benefits and review recent studies of the tax | |
treatment of employee benefits.) (CML) | |
Date Published: 2014-11-24 10:01:42 | |
Identifier: ERIC_ED317708 | |
Item Size: 95878525 | |
Language: english | |
Media Type: texts | |
# Topics | |
ERIC Archive; Adults; Economic Impact... | |
# Collections | |
ericarchive | |
additional_collections | |
# Uploaded by | |
@chris85 | |
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