Congressman suggests tax break for health insurance

Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell is calling for a new tax break to help cover the cost of health insurance. Boswell, a democrat, is proposing a two -thousand dollar health-insurance tax deduction for any family or individual filing a tax return. Businesses, meanwhile, would get a two-thousand dollar tax credit for each employee covered by health insurance. Boswell says he hears from people “constantly” about concerns over healthcare coverage or the lack of it, saying more than 40-million nationwide are uninsured and many more “kinda under-insured” because their deductibles are already maxed out. Boswell presented his proposal during a stop at Carter printing in Des Moines. Congressman Boswell says owner Ron Hoyt has seen the cost of providing health insurance to his sixteen employees increase by 62-percent in the last four years. Boswell says it’s costing the boss 220-dollars a month for each worker, “hittin’ him really hard,” and he doesn’t want to lose workers who like working there and have been partners in his success. Boswell says the plan would let Hoyt deduct two-thousand dollars of the 20-thousand in income tax for each employee he insures. Boswell says providing the business a tax credit will give them an incentive to keep covering their employees.It’ll be costly, he acknowledges, but says Polk County’s three major hospitals tell him it costs millions in taxpayer money to care for uninsured patients. Boswell says he won’t have a price tag for his bill until he introduces it to congress when they reconvene. His proposal does not cover the self-insured because they can already deduct the cost of their health insurance from their taxes. Boswell is running for a fifth term in Iowa’s third congressional district and faces a rematch with republican challenger Stan Thompson.