Why Rubio’s and Walker’s Health-Care Plans Are Better Than Obamacare

[Geee]

National Review:

Ezekiel Emanuel recently published an article in the Washington Post in which he criticized the health-care reform plans offered by Republican presidential candidates Scott Walker and Marco Rubio. Emanuel seems to think he exposed the fatal flaw of these plans. What he actually revealed, however, is that he does not understand what these GOP candidates are proposing or how the provision of employer-sponsored health care works in a competitive labor market.

 

Emanuel’s argument is that the Walker and Rubio plans would ultimately eliminate the federal tax preference for employer-paid health-insurance premiums and provide in its place a federal tax credit that is woefully inadequate. He claims that these tax credits would leave many middle-class families paying several thousand dollars more for their health insurance than they do today.

 

His first error occurs because he does not understand the plans offered by Walker and Rubio. He is correct that Senator Rubio proposes a ten-year phase-out of the tax preference for employer-paid premiums, with a refundable tax credit gradually taking its place. But that same concept is not in the Walker health-care proposal. Governor Walker proposes to leave job-based health plans intact and as is, and in fact would lower the costs of employer-sponsored plans by eliminating the many rules and requirements of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The tax credits Walker offers are for people who do not have access to employer coverage.

[Valin]