IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5147.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax Subsidies to Employer-Provided Health Insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Gruber
  • James Poterba

Abstract

This paper investigates the current tax subsidy to employer- provided health insurance, and presents new evidence on the economic effects of various tax reforms. It argues that previous analyses have overstated the tax subsidy to employer-provided insurance by neglecting the substantial and growing importance of after-tax employee payments for employer-provided insurance, as well as the tax subsidy for extreme medical expenses, which discourages insurance purchase. Even after considering these factors, however, the net tax subsidy to employer-provided insurance is substantial, with tax factors generating an average reduction of approximately thirty percent in the price of this insurance. Reducing the tax subsidy, either by capping the value of employer-provided health insurance that could be excluded from taxation, or eliminating the exclusion entirely, would have substantial effects on the level of employer- provided insurance and on tax revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Gruber & James Poterba, 1995. "Tax Subsidies to Employer-Provided Health Insurance," NBER Working Papers 5147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5147
    Note: AG EH PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5147.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holmer, Martin, 1984. "Tax policy and the demand for health insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 203-221, December.
    2. Woodbury, Stephen A & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1992. "Taxes, Fringe Benefits and Faculty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(2), pages 287-296, May.
    3. Lindsey, Lawrence B., 1987. "Individual taxpayer response to tax cuts: 1982-1984 : With implications for the revenue maximizing tax rate," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 173-206, July.
    4. Pauly, Mark V, 1986. "Taxation, Health Insurance, and Market Failure in the Medical Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 629-675, June.
    5. Feldstein, Martin & Samwick, Andrew A., 1992. "Social Security Rules and Marginal Tax Rates," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, March.
    6. Kaplow, Louis, 1992. "Income Tax Deductions for Losses as Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 1013-1017, September.
    7. -, 1992. "International economic highlights 1991," Oficina de la CEPAL en Washington (Estudios e Investigaciones) 28935, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    8. Hausman, Jerry A & Poterba, James M, 1987. "Household Behavior and the Tax Reform Act of 1986," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 101-119, Summer.
    9. Marquis, M Susan & Phelps, Charles E, 1987. "Price Elasticity and Adverse Selection in the Demand for Supplementary Health Insurance," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 25(2), pages 299-313, April.
    10. Anonymous, 1992. "Economic notes," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 55, Septemebe.
    11. Louis Kaplow, 1991. "The Income Tax as Insurance: The Casualty Loss and Medical Expense Deductions and the Exclusion of the Medical Insurance Premiums," NBER Working Papers 3723, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Burman, Leonard E. & Williams, Roberton, 1994. "Tax Caps on Employment-Based Health Insurance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(3), pages 529-45, September.
    13. Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensation Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 111-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Anonymous, 1992. "Economic forecasts overview and summary table," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 55, December.
    15. Burman, Leonard E. & Williams, Roberton, 1994. "Tax Caps on Employment-Based Health Insurance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(3), pages 529-545, September.
    16. Woodbury, Stephen A, 1983. "Substitution between Wage and Nonwage Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 166-182, March.
    17. -, 1992. "Economic survey of Puerto Rico 1991," Oficina de la CEPAL en Washington (Estudios e Investigaciones) 28936, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    18. Anonymous, 1992. "Economic forecast overview and summary table," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 55, june.
    19. Alan M. Garber & Charles E. Phelps, 1992. "Economic Foundations of Cost Effective Analysis," NBER Working Papers 4164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Michael Rothschild & Joseph Stiglitz, 1976. "Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 629-649.
    21. Anonymous, 1992. "New Zealand economic chronology 1991," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 55, march.
    22. Feldstein, Martin S, 1973. "The Welfare Loss of Excess Health Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 251-280, Part I, M.
    23. Gruber, Jonathan, 1994. "The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 622-641, June.
    24. Long, James E & Scott, Frank A, 1982. "The Income Tax and Nonwage Compensation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(2), pages 211-219, May.
    25. -, 1992. "Evolución de la economía brasileña, 1992," Informe Estadístico – Oficina de la CEPAL en Brasilia 28080, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Gruber & Michael Lettau, 2000. "How Elastic is the Firm's Demand for Health Insurance?," NBER Working Papers 8021, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Håkan Selin, 2012. "Marginal Tax Rates and Tax‐Favoured Pension Savings of the Self‐Employed: Evidence from Sweden," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(1), pages 79-100, March.
    3. Cannon Michael F., 2008. "Large Health Savings Accounts: A Step toward Tax Neutrality for Health Care," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-29, March.
    4. Jonathan Gruber, 2002. "Taxes and Health Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 16, pages 37-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Zabinski, Daniel & Selden, Thomas M. & Moeller, John F. & Banthin, Jessica S., 1999. "Medical savings accounts: microsimulation results from a model with adverse selection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 195-218, April.
    6. William G. Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Tax Reform for Growth, Equity, and Revenue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(6), pages 721-754, November.
    7. Sewell, David, 1997. "Shifting responsibility for social services as enterprises privatize in Belarus," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1719, The World Bank.
    8. Thomas Selden, 2008. "The effect of tax subsidies on high health care expenditure burdens in the United States," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 209-223, September.
    9. David M. Cutler, 1996. "Public Policy for Health Care," NBER Working Papers 5591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. DeVaro, Jed & Maxwell, Nan L., 2014. "The elusive wage-benefit trade-off: The case of employer-provided health insurance," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 23-37.
    11. Dizioli, Allan & Pinheiro, Roberto, 2016. "Health insurance as a productive factor," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-24.
    12. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3309-3416 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Jaspersen, Johannes G. & Richter, Andreas, 2015. "The wealth effects of premium subsidies on moral hazard in insurance markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 139-153.
    14. Janet Currie & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Health Insurance and Less Skilled Workers," NBER Working Papers 7291, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Miller, Nolan H., 2005. "Pricing health benefits: A cost-minimization approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 931-949, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holmes, Thomas J & Schmitz, James A, Jr, 1995. "On the Turnover of Business Firms and Business Managers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 1005-1038, October.
    2. Blakemore, Arthur E & Burgess, Paul L & Low, Stuart A & St Louis, Robert D, 1996. "Employer Tax Evasion in the Unemployment Insurance Program," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(2), pages 210-230, April.
    3. Wissner, Matthias, 2014. "Regulation of district-heating systems," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 63-73.
    4. Koji Miyawaki & Yasuhiro Omori & Akira Hibiki, 2016. "Exact Estimation of Demand Functions under Block-Rate Pricing," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 311-343, March.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence Kahn, 2000. "Gender and Youth Employment Outcomes (The United States and West Germany, 1984-1991)," NBER Chapters, in: Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries, pages 107-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Gowdy, John M. & McDaniel, Carl N., 1995. "One world, one experiment: addressing the biodiversity--economics conflict," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 181-192, December.
    7. Sabin Bikram Panta & Devi Prasad Bedari, Ph.D., 2015. "Cost Efficiency of Nepali Commercial Banks in the Context of Regulatory Changes," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Research Department, vol. 27(2), pages 1-16, October.
    8. Gruber, Jonathan & Lettau, Michael, 2004. "How elastic is the firm's demand for health insurance?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1273-1293, July.
    9. Manning, Willard G. & Marquis, M. Susan, 1996. "Health insurance: The tradeoff between risk pooling and moral hazard," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 609-639, October.
    10. Jonathan Gruber & James M. Poterba, 1993. "Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed," NBER Working Papers 4435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Jonathan Gruber & Michael Lettau, 2000. "How Elastic is the Firm's Demand for Health Insurance?," NBER Working Papers 8021, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Jonathan Gruber, 2002. "Taxes and Health Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 16, pages 37-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mark Stabile, 2002. "The Role of Tax Subsidies in the Market for Health Insurance," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 9(1), pages 33-50, January.
    14. Chahreddine ABBES, 2009. "When Free Trade is Good for the Environment?," EcoMod2009 21500000, EcoMod.
    15. Finkelstein, Amy, 2002. "The effect of tax subsidies to employer-provided supplementary health insurance: evidence from Canada," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 305-339, June.
    16. Voßmerbäumer, Jan & Wagner, Franz W., 2013. "Steuerwirkungen betrieblicher Entgeltpolitik," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 144, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    17. David Powell, 2019. "The Distortionary Effects of the Health Insurance Tax Exclusion," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 428-464, Fall.
    18. Dan A. Black, 1996. "Family Health Benefits and Worker Turnover," Labor and Demography 9604001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Andrew James Abbott & Glauco de Vita, 2011. "Testing for long-run convergence across regional house prices in the UK: a pairwise approach," Post-Print hal-00762892, HAL.
    20. Mitra, Atul & Jenkins, G. Douglas & Gupta, Nina & Shaw, Jason D., 2015. "The utility of pay raises/cuts: A simulation experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 150-166.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5147. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.