The most important health care right is the right to make one’s own health decisions. An essential part of that right is the right to control one’s income.
For 100 years, Congress has threatened workers with higher taxes unless they let an employer control a large portion of their income and choose their health insurance. Congress penalizes workers for exercising their rights to choose their health insurance and make their own health care decisions. This tax “break” coerces workers into letting employers control roughly $1 trillion of their earnings and their health insurance.
Workers have a right to control that money and to make their own health care decisions without government penalizing them. Government should not bestow preferential tax treatment on any particular uses of income.
At present, health savings accounts free only a small share of workers to control only a small share of those earnings. Congress can restore health care rights and improve health care by making health savings accounts work for everyone.
