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Article: President Offers Good First Step for Health Insurance Reform
- Article from:
- Human Events
- Article date:
- January 29, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jan 29, 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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President Bush's health insurance tax reform is the simplest and yet must radical proposal to emerge in decades. To understand why, readers need a little background.
During World War II, the country imposed wage and price controls to limit inflation during wartime shortages. Employers started offering health insurance as a way to attract good employees in a tight labor market, raising the question whether those benefits would he considered taxable income. In October 1943, the IRS announced that employer-provided health insurance benefits would not be considered income for tax purposes-what is known as a "tax exclusion" because the money spent on health insurance is excluded from income.
In ...