The repeal and replace effort has failed for now. Republicans will move on to tax reform. It remains to be seen what they accomplish in an effort that is arguably at least as complicated as health reform. Ironically, Senator John McCain, the man whose thumbs down deep-sixed the frantic effort to find a way to get something resembling Obamacare repeal passed in the Senate, long ago offered one of the boldest proposals I have seen in my lifetime as it relates to both health reform and tax reform.
Senator McCain proposed to completely eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage (rather than merely capping it–a half measure designed to mitigate rather than eliminate the distortions caused by the exclusion while doing nearly nothing about its unfairness). As detailed in this Heritage report: His plan “would replace the special tax breaks for employer-based health insurance with a universal system of health care tax credits for the purchase of health insurance.
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