Their plan is better, but both plans in a way further distort the healthcare market for the worse. Simply any favorable tax treatment for health insurance payments raises costs. We have that currently with the tax deduction for employer-provided coverage. In that sense, the “Cadillac tax” at least makes a start in pulling that back. But either the tax credit that Ryan’s plan has and the tax deduction that Paul’s plan has equalize the market in the wrong direction by expanding that to non-employer plans. The only correct way to deal with that is to start phasing out the special tax treatment for employer-provided coverage (even if non-employer coverage is given equal treatment during the phase out).
IMHO, the “repeal and replace” meme is bass-ackwards. Why not “replace” and then “repeal”?
As part of the “Replace” program,
1. Do away with the fines for NOT buying Obama-care.
2. Do away with mandates that require every healthcare insurance policy to cover the same laundry list of health problems.
3. Allow individuals to deduct their healthcare insurance premiums from taxable pretax income just as corporations do.
4. Eliminate the “Use it or lose it” feature of HSAs.
5. Limit the kinds of health care that Hospital Emergency Rooms are required to provide.
6. Reduce the lush profits of “ambulance chasing lawyers”.
7. Offer basic Medicare to the truly needy.
8. Punish Medicare, tort lawyer and prescription fraud very severely.
9. Permit health insurance sales “across State lines”.
10. Make roll-up of one-state subsidiaries of health insurance companies easy.
11. Watch ObamaCare’s members switch to free-market providers.
After the “self-repeal” of Obamacare is nearly complete, legally repeal it.
IMHO, the “repeal and replace” meme is bass-ackwards. Why not “replace” and then “repeal”?
As part of the “Replace” program,
1. Do away with the fines for NOT buying Obama-care.
2. Do away with mandates that require every healthcare insurance policy to cover the same laundry list of health problems.
3. Allow individuals to deduct their healthcare insurance premiums from taxable pretax income just as corporations do.
4. Eliminate the “Use it or lose it” feature of HSAs.
5. Limit the kinds of health care that Hospital Emergency Rooms are required to provide.
6. Reduce the lush profits of “ambulance chasing lawyers”.
7. Offer basic Medicare to the truly needy.
8. Punish Medicare, tort lawyer and prescription fraud very severely.
9. Permit health insurance sales “across State lines”.
10. Make roll-up of one-state subsidiaries of health insurance companies easy.
11. Watch ObamaCare’s members switch to free-market providers.
After the “self-repeal” of Obamacare is nearly complete, legally repeal it.