Swiss Health Care as an Example

Gary Becker writes:

The Swiss health care system has several important properties that I (and many others) have been advocating should be incorporated into any reform of the US health care system. One major advantage of the Swiss system is that employer-provided health care does not receive any special tax breaks, whereas the US system is built on these tax breaks. As a result, only a rather a small fraction of Swiss health care is obtained through employment. Mainly, Swiss families buy health care on their own, so that, unlike in the US, their health insurance does not reduce their incentives to change jobs because job changes do not endanger their health coverage. Unfortunately, probably due to union pressure, Congress is not planning to eliminate this tax break for employer-provided health care. Indeed, many Congressmen want to increase the pressure on employers to provide health care to their employees.

Read the rest of his excellent blog post here.

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Competitive Economies: Swiss vs. American

The World Economic Forum says the United States has been dethroned by Switzerland for the title of the world’s most competitive economy.