{"id":157,"date":"2011-09-29T09:47:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/?p=157"},"modified":"2011-09-29T09:47:51","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T15:47:51","slug":"reuters-ryans-targeting-u-s-employer-healthcare-tax-breaks-could-help-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Reuters: Ryan’s targeting U.S. employer healthcare tax breaks . . . could help Democrats ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/09\/27\/us-ryan-healthcare-tax-breaks-idUSTRE78Q5NV20110927<\/a><\/p>\n

(Reuters) – U.S. employer healthcare tax breaks would be replaced with refundable tax credits for individuals under a proposal offered on Tuesday by House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Eliminating healthcare tax breaks for business would likely encourage most companies to drop their employer-sponsored plans. That was an argument Republicans used against Obama’s healthcare overhaul.<\/p>\n

But Ryan said his plan would put patients more in control of their healthcare and go a long way toward reining in soaring healthcare costs.<\/p>\n

“By putting the power into the hands of individuals, we can let competition work in healthcare just as it does everywhere else,” Ryan said.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

The new proposal is likely to revive the political controversy surrounding Ryan’s proposal to phase out government-run Medicare and give subsidies to the elderly to purchase coverage from private insurers.<\/p>\n

Ryan’s earlier plan to privatize Medicare, a popular healthcare program for the elderly, contributed to Democrats scoring an upset victory in a special House election this year in a traditionally Republican district in New York.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A similar proposal to end tax breaks for employer-sponsored healthcare hurt Senator John McCain’s 2008 run for president against Obama.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/09\/27\/us-ryan-healthcare-tax-breaks-idUSTRE78Q5NV20110927 (Reuters) – U.S. employer healthcare tax breaks would be replaced with refundable tax credits for individuals under a proposal offered on Tuesday by House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. . . . Eliminating healthcare tax breaks for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-presidential-candidates","category-political-news-dc","category-political-news-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbvdems.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}