Health Care

Wall Street Journal - THE SHIFTING TAX IMPLICATIONS OF MCCAIN'S HEALTH PLAN

John McCain's(R-Ariz.) health care plan has been variously described as a huge tax cut, as having no net impact on tax collections and, for some, as a tax increase.  Part of the confusion stems from an important but somewhat obscure tax provision of his plan, says the Wall Street Journal.

At some point, though, the McCain campaign decided that health benefits should remain exempt from payroll taxes.  That meant that there would still be an incentive to provide health insurance on the job.  But it came with a price: $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

The good news is that that is a tax cut, and most Americans will pay less for insurance.  The bad news is that McCain has not specified how he would pay for it.  It would come on top of a raft of other tax cuts that he has not specified how he'll pay for, says the Journal.