Think Tank Criticizes Health Tax Credit Proposals

NU Online News Service, July 26, 5:24 p.m. – The Center for Studying Health System Change, Washington, is criticizing Republican and Democratic proposals to offer an individual health insurance premium tax credit for families with taxable incomes of up to about $65,000.

The tax credits would help younger, healthier Americans buy individual insurance, but they would not be enough to help older, sicker Americans buy coverage, the center argues.

The center, a nonpartisan think tank, predicts that the tax credit would be enough to cover at least half of the cost of an individual policy for 90% of uninsured, healthy people between the ages of 19 and 29.

But the credit would be big enough to cover half of the health coverage costs for only 1% of uninsured people between the ages of 55 and 64 who were in poor health, the center estimates.

The center looked at one tax-credit proposal offered by the Bush administration and a second, bipartisan proposal offered by a bipartisan coalition in the Senate.