Private Health Insurance: Estimates of a Proposed Health Insurance Tax Credit forThose Who Buy Individual Health Insurance

摘要

The potential tax benefit that individuals without employment-based healthcoverage would receive if a tax credit were available for the premiums of individually purchased health insurance. In particular, we estimated the number of people who would possibly benefit from a tax credit and the potential value of the tax credit as proposed in H.R. 539. Under current law, self-employed individuals may deduct 45 percent of health insurance expenses if they are not eligible to participate in an employer-subsidized health plan. In addition, any individual may claim an itemized deduction for health insurance premiums to the extent that they and all other medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI).