Bush planning to tax people with good health care insurance

As a believer in progressive taxation, there may be some good things about Bush's proposal to tax workers whose employers offer exceptionally good health care plans, but I have a feeling there aren't. This may just be away to force everyone to have shitty coverage. I also have a feeling that's the way the public is going to see it too.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will propose in his State of the Union address a tax break for people who buy their own health insurance and a limit on how much coverage individuals can receive tax free at work.

The proposal to be announced Tuesday offers a tax deduction to people who purchase coverage and urges those with generous plans to either embrace cheaper insurance or pay taxes on part of it, according to a Bush administration official familiar with the proposals.

To give credit where credit is due, the proposal to give tax deductions to those who have to buy their own coverage is long overdue. Unfortunately, tax deductions don't mean much to those $5.15 an hour Wall-Mart employees who aren't covered by the company, since they don't pay much of anything in income taxes anyway. A credit against their F.I.C.A. taxes might actually mean something, but no one is proposing this.