DALLAS (Jan. 26, 2000) — Responding to the announcement by Sens. Jeffords, Breaux, and Frist and House Majority Leader Armey of their bipartisan proposal to provide tax credits for the purchase of health insurance, National Center for Policy Analysis President John C. Goodman, Ph.D., issued the following statement:
"The sponsors of this bill have made a bold, bipartisan effort to solve one of the nation's most pressing problems. They deserve high praise from every corner of the health care system, from all political parties and from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
"The key to this legislation is the concept of the fixed-sum, refundable tax credit for those who buy their own health insurance. This is a concept long advocated by the NCPA.
"For too long, Congress has ignored the way in which federal tax policy has been creating our health care problems. The tax system has shaped and molded our health system. In a very real sense, health reform is tax reform."
Dr. Goodman, who is commonly referred to as the "the father of Medical Savings Accounts," has been an innovative advocate of proposals to shift the power in our health care system towards patients and away from impersonal bureaucracies. He authored the book Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, the condensed version of which sold 300,000 copies and is credited with playing a pivotal role in the defeat of the Clinton administration's 1994 health care plan. Dr. Goodman writes extensively on health care policy, including, Reforming the U.S. Health Care System, which is one of the most comprehensive analyses available on the subject of tax credits for health insurance. This report can be found at http://www.ncpathinktank.org/pub/bg149.