A plus for both liberals and conservatives

Published 12:31 pm Friday, October 21, 2011

The congressional panel charged with producing a deficit reduction plan should consider eliminating the deductibility of health care insurance.

Doing so would reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years, a number that would surely please conservatives. Those 47 percent who currently pay no income tax would see little or no increase, while the highest income earners would pay up to 35 percent of the insurance costs. Surely that would please the liberals.

Both sides would also benefit with more public awareness of the health care insurance costs potentially leading to more choices for both employer and employee.

Bill Hirt, Bellevue