TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gruber,Jonathan
ED  - National Bureau of Economic Research.
TI  - Tax Subsidies for Health Insurance: Evaluating the Costs and Benefits 
T2  - NBER working paper series
PY  - 2000///
CY  - Cambridge, Mass.
PB  - National Bureau of Economic Research
N1  - February 2000; Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
N2  - The continued rise in the number of non-elderly Americans without health insurance has led to considerable interest in tax-based policies to raise the level of insurance coverage.  This paper describes a detailed microsimulation model that has been developed to evaluate such tax-based polices, and its findings for the impact of polices on government costs and insurance coverage.  I find that while tax subsidies could significantly increase insurance coverage, even very generous tax policies could not cover more than a sizable minority of the uninsured population.  But there are several design features which can clearly make tax policy more effective: using tax credits rather than deductions; making credits refundable; and addressing the timing mismatch between when insurance purchases are made and tax refunds are received.  I also document a clear tradeoff between the scope of tax subsidies and their efficiency
UR  - https://www.nber.org/papers/w7553
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w7553
ER  -