by Rod D. Martin
January 23, 2007

This is vital.  Democrats are already spinning the President’s plan as a tax increase, which is a sick joke.  We have to fight their spin.

The tax exemption idea for health insurance is brilliant:  the only complaint I have is that it’s not as much as I’d like.  I have long spoken out for a complete and total exemption for every American for every dollar spent or saved for health care and insurance.  But the President’s plan is an enormous step in the right direction, and something Democrats have steadfastly refused to do for decades.  Don’t let them fool you on this point.

Expanded Health Savings Accounts are a big part of this, as are Association Health Plans and medical liability reform.  But don’t expect Dems to warm to these things:  the latter hurts their ability to bring in campaign bucks from the trial lawyer lobby, the former hurt their ability to concentrate health care into more and more centralized schemes.

Bottom line:  as the President said, the aim is not just for every American to have good, reasonably priced health care — something HSAs are already going a long way toward making possible — but for every American to have control over their own health care too.  Markets and pro-consumer tax reforms alone can make this possible — and make it a reality.

But the Democrats are steadfastly opposed to both.