Taxed Health Care

Published in USA TODAY on April 16, 2001

USA TODAY reports that workers pay more for health care. But workers always have been the only ones who really pay for health care. They receive their own health benefits in lieu of wages and pay for government programs through taxes ("Workers may pay more for care," Monday, April, 5).

The government and employers are not the ultimate payers, but merely purchasers. They make the decisions, but it is our money they are spending. This adds insult to injuries caused by HMOs that are chosen for us.

If Americans are to regain control of their health care, they must start making their own purchasing decisions – about which insurance plans to buy and which health care services to use.

Individual tax credits would empower health care consumers and would be a wise way to spend some of the federal budget surplus.

Thomas Campbell Jackson
Senior fellow
Institute for SocioEconomic Studies
White Plains, NY