,Health Tax Incentives: Healthy Choices or Bad Medicine?

Health Tax Incentives: Healthy Choices or Bad Medicine?


 

Publication Date: January 2009

Publisher: National Council of La Raza

Author(s): Kara D. Ryan; Kara D. Ryan

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Hispanic population; Economic inequality; Noncitizens; Employer-based coverage

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States United States

Abstract:

Currently, millions of American lives are at risk because, for the uninsured, even the most basic medical care is unaffordable. With an uninsurance rate of one in three (32.1%), Latinos are the Americans most in need of new options for access to health care. This report analyzes several policies, known as health tax incentives, that have been proposed to address the broken health coverage system. NCLR finds that, if carefully crafted, some health tax incentives have promise to reduce uninsurance in the Latino community. The effectiveness of any proposal, however, depends on policymakers’ willingness to tackle the serious barriers that currently keep Hispanics and other Americans uninsured.