Health care idea

I was just thinking (while reading an article by Yuval Levin) about the health insurance payment reform crap, and these words just kinda, struck me:

Conservative and liberal experts generally agree on the nature of the problem with American health care financing: There is a shortage of incentives for efficiency in our methods of paying for coverage and care, and therefore costs are rising much too quickly, leaving too many people unable to afford insurance.

See, that's the problem right there ...... everyone thinks the government needs to incentivize everything.

Government can't incentivize; it can only promise not to penalize you as much.

That's one tasty carrot, huh? I can hardly wait.

So lets start comparing oranges to Tangelo's. If the company you work for supplies you with a company vehicle, the IRS considers that a 'fringe benefit' and taxes you on the constructive value of the vehicle.'

Now, if the company I work for is self-insured (which it was), and has to pay the balance of any health care I receive, why shouldn't I be taxed on that 'fringe benefit as well?

The economic law of supply and demand is not repealed just because you're talking about health care. If someone else is paying for your health care, or at least limiting your financial exposure, there will be a tendancy for you to use more health care than you might, in fact, need. So economically, if demand goes up, so do prices ...... unless supply expands to meet demand (which it won't).

So if you're using more health care than you need, and someone else is subsidizing your health care use, why should that not become taxable income?

That'd turn things upside down, wouldn't it?!

pm