“To put it simply, the tax aims to reduce patients’ utilization of health care. But the glaring problem of U.S. health costs is not excess utilization; instead it is high and rising prices for health care,” wrote Thea M. Lee, president of the institute and a former leader of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and the economist Josh Bivens. Health economists, who have generally been the biggest supporters of the tax, see it as an important way to contain rising health care costs, contending that generous health benefits encourage people to get more medical care than they need. “Unfortunately a lot of what Congress has been doing in recent years seems to be ignoring the budgetary consequences,” he said. The answer is, it’s not as good as it should be and we shouldn’t be making it worse.”

Source: New York Times July 17, 2019 16:36 UTC