Sunday, May 15, 2005

A different form of tax cut

With it being election year pressure is again coming on the government to cut taxes. I think a great way of offering a tax cut would be to give rebates on private health care insurance premiums. Currently the rebates system allows for donations and childcare/housekeeper and is one of the simplest and most efficient ways for the government to refund money. Surely we should be willing to give some encouragement to those who choose to have private health insurance as it eases the burden on the public system. An often used argument against tax cuts is they only benefit the rich, well here is one that would benefit the middle class and rich (as they are generally the ones who can afford health insurance) but also benefit the poor as if more people go private it frees public health resources. Obviously the amount you could get back would be capped. What's more as the government is only giving a 1/3 of the amount back it could well pay for itself with the savings!

1 comment:

Aaron More said...

I think some improvements could be made to our public health system (although overall I don't believe it is as bad as some make it out to be) but I think waiting lists for certain types of health care will always be inevitable, that is why health insurance will always be a viable option. I am unsure about health care directly but in a lot of other areas private sector runs more economically then the public so the government rewarding people for going private is a bonus for everyone.