Appeared in The Washington Post June 18, 1999.

We may be the ultimate congressional odd couple. We seldom agree on anything. But on this we do agree: Congress should act now to help the 43 million Americans who have no health insurance.

The ranks of the uninsured are growing by 100,000 a month. And this is happening during a time of strong economic growth, despite continuing congressional attempts to expand coverage. Imagine what will happen come the next economic downturn.

For individuals, being uninsured is a problem because too often it means health care forgone, small warning signs ignored and minor illnesses allowed to become costly crises. It's a problem for families because unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. And it's a problem for the nation because uncompensated care is an unfair burden on doctors, hospitals and taxpayers.

Why is the problem growing? Because Americans are increasingly unable to get coverage through their jobs. With health premiums going up, employers are bearing a smaller share of those premiums, and the work force is becoming increasingly mobile and part-time. More and more people find themselves working in places where coverage is either unavailable, unaffordable or undesirable ("one crummy HMO"). And when these workers try to buy insurance outside their jobs, they lose a generous tax break, making coverage that much less affordable.

Indeed, today's tax code discriminates against not only insurance purchased outside the workplace but also lower-paid, part-time and small-business workers. The highly paid CEO gets a more lavish health-care tax break than the waitress earning the minimum wage.

These problems cry out for remedy. And happily, a bipartisan remedy is available. We think Congress should create a new refundable tax credit to enable all Americans to buy decent health coverage.

Properly designed, such a credit could bring about near-universal coverage without new mandates or bureaucracy. It would eliminate barriers the uninsured face in today's system, enabling them to shop for basic coverage that suits their individual needs and is portable from job to job.

To be successful, the credit would need to be sufficiently generous to buy a decent policy; available to those who owe no tax liability; and, to prevent fraud, paid directly to insurers or other entities, not to individuals.

Would the existence of such a credit prompt some employers and employees to drop workplace coverage? Unavoidably. But job-based coverage is already eroding. And the erosion can be minimized by making the credit less attractive than most company plans.

To be sure, we don't want to end workplace coverage. We do want to permit a gradual transition to a world in which individuals are free to obtain the kind of insurance they want, regardless of where it's purchased.

What amount is "sufficiently generous"? That's open to debate. But we note that $3,600 per family is roughly the amount the federal government spends on its own employees' families.

Obviously this proposal would produce a revenue loss of tens of billions a year, risking a return to deficits. So how do we "pay" for it? Well, a portion of the surplus could be used. And we note that reducing the numbers of the uninsured would free billions in current federal cross-subsidy programs.

Admittedly, a tax credit can't help people who are too sick to insure at any price. Although we differ, fairly strongly, about the best way to help such people, we agree a reasonable way can be found to do so, and we'll keep looking for it. (Rep. Stark would prefer to get insurers to take all customers at a common price, regardless of health status. Rep. Armey would set up "high-risk pools" to subsidize sick people's coverage in the 22 states that haven't already done so.)

Too often, when Congress turns to health issues, it ends up applying legislative Band-Aids. It's time to address underlying causes. The biggest health problem facing the country is the uninsured. The tax code can be used to help them. We urge a bipartisan consensus to do so.

Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) is the House majority leader. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) is the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means health subcommittee.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

 

 

Appeared in The Washington Post June 18, 1999.

We may be the ultimate congressional odd couple. We seldom agree on anything. But on this we do agree: Congress should act now to help the 43 million Americans who have no health insurance.

The ranks of the uninsured are growing by 100,000 a month. And this is happening during a time of strong economic growth, despite continuing congressional attempts to expand coverage. Imagine what will happen come the next economic downturn.

For individuals, being uninsured is a problem because too often it means health care forgone, small warning signs ignored and minor illnesses allowed to become costly crises. It's a problem for families because unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. And it's a problem for the nation because uncompensated care is an unfair burden on doctors, hospitals and taxpayers.

Why is the problem growing? Because Americans are increasingly unable to get coverage through their jobs. With health premiums going up, employers are bearing a smaller share of those premiums, and the work force is becoming increasingly mobile and part-time. More and more people find themselves working in places where coverage is either unavailable, unaffordable or undesirable ("one crummy HMO"). And when these workers try to buy insurance outside their jobs, they lose a generous tax break, making coverage that much less affordable.

Indeed, today's tax code discriminates against not only insurance purchased outside the workplace but also lower-paid, part-time and small-business workers. The highly paid CEO gets a more lavish health-care tax break than the waitress earning the minimum wage.

These problems cry out for remedy. And happily, a bipartisan remedy is available. We think Congress should create a new refundable tax credit to enable all Americans to buy decent health coverage.

Properly designed, such a credit could bring about near-universal coverage without new mandates or bureaucracy. It would eliminate barriers the uninsured face in today's system, enabling them to shop for basic coverage that suits their individual needs and is portable from job to job.

To be successful, the credit would need to be sufficiently generous to buy a decent policy; available to those who owe no tax liability; and, to prevent fraud, paid directly to insurers or other entities, not to individuals.

Would the existence of such a credit prompt some employers and employees to drop workplace coverage? Unavoidably. But job-based coverage is already eroding. And the erosion can be minimized by making the credit less attractive than most company plans.

To be sure, we don't want to end workplace coverage. We do want to permit a gradual transition to a world in which individuals are free to obtain the kind of insurance they want, regardless of where it's purchased.

What amount is "sufficiently generous"? That's open to debate. But we note that $3,600 per family is roughly the amount the federal government spends on its own employees' families.

Obviously this proposal would produce a revenue loss of tens of billions a year, risking a return to deficits. So how do we "pay" for it? Well, a portion of the surplus could be used. And we note that reducing the numbers of the uninsured would free billions in current federal cross-subsidy programs.

Admittedly, a tax credit can't help people who are too sick to insure at any price. Although we differ, fairly strongly, about the best way to help such people, we agree a reasonable way can be found to do so, and we'll keep looking for it. (Rep. Stark would prefer to get insurers to take all customers at a common price, regardless of health status. Rep. Armey would set up "high-risk pools" to subsidize sick people's coverage in the 22 states that haven't already done so.)

Too often, when Congress turns to health issues, it ends up applying legislative Band-Aids. It's time to address underlying causes. The biggest health problem facing the country is the uninsured. The tax code can be used to help them. We urge a bipartisan consensus to do so.

Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) is the House majority leader. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) is the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means health subcommittee.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.