By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-926809.mp3
Albany, Ny – The high cost of health care for New York's struggling middle class and "working poor" is about to fall to what experts hail as "the largest middle-income tax cut in history". As Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports, there's a new study that finds the national health care overhaul will save New York families millions of dollars.
Families USA, a non-profit health care advocacy group, has issued a paper entitled, "Lower Taxes, Lower Premiums: The New Health Insurance Tax Credit in New York." The tax credits, which will help those with incomes up to four times the federal poverty level ($88,200 for a family of four), are part of the health care overhaul that became law this spring.
Elisabeth Benjamin, the vice-president of Health Initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York, says the cost of health care has outpaced wages beyond worker's ability to pay premiums. Benjamin, who is a member of Governor Paterson's Health Care Reform Advisory Committee, says concrete tax relief helps New Yorkers at a time they need it most. She expects Health Care Reform will figure prominently in discussions during next year's budget cycle.
Meanwhile, the New York-based "Commonwealth Fund," a private health research foundation, issued a report earlier this month indicating that most of the eligible small-business firms across the state likely to take advantage of federal tax credits to offset the cost of employee health insurance premiums, already offer health benefits... and the credits may not be enough of an incentive to get other eligible small businesses that do not offer coverage to start providing it before state-run health insurance exchanges and mandates are required in 2014.