Health Insurance Benefits to be Taxed?

The mess surrounding the heath care “reform” debate continues. Republicans received good news with the win in Massachusetts by Scott Brown, who will fill the Senate seat vacated by the late Edward Kennedy. This changes things up a bit, and may force some serious looking at the current reform bill that the Senate has put forward. It differs on some very key points from the bill passed by the House, so the two chambers are trying to reconcile the differences. One of the big differences is an excise tax on health insurance benefits.

Here is what the New York Times reports about a possible excise tax:

The excise tax, as written in the Senate version of the health care bill, would impose a 40 percent charge on the value of health benefits above $8,500 for individual policies and $23,000 for family policies, with higher thresholds for certain high-risk jobs, some retirees and certain telecommunications workers. There would also be a higher threshold in certain states with high health care costs.

For those who pay for their insurance as self-employed folks, this tax probably won’t have a big impact. If your home business is mostly a side business, though, and you get your insurance through another job, you might find yourself staring at an excise tax if your health insurance benefits are valuable enough.