�
Economists at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday discussed how tax code changes to employer-sponsored health insurance premiums could fund health care coverage for the uninsured, CQ HealthBeat reports. Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) referred to the tax subsidies for employer-sponsored health benefits, which exclude premiums paid by employers from taxable income for employees, as "the third largest politics entitlement for health care" after Medicare and Medicaid.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology prof Jonathan Gruber told the committee that the exclusion is "leading to over-insurance for most Americans" and estimated that because of the exclusion, the federal government forgoes $250 billion annually in tax tax income -- "an enormous
