photo credit: Marcin Wichary

Recent proposals about buying health insurance across state lines have sent many of us scrambling to check policies, and wondering whether such changes might mean it’s time to find a new insurer. After all, wouldn’t such a change open up the market and make it possible to get cheaper coverage?

Unfortunately, it’s by no means certain that such a change would be largely beneficial. In fact, it’s actually possible that the end result might be more expensive insurance overall, and that over time, more Americans would find health insurance too expensive.

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photo credit: Progress Ohio

If you’re in a position where you have to buy your own health insurance, you’re probably grumbling about it for many reasons, not the least of which is that you don’t enjoy the same tax breaks on health insurance that employer-subsidized insurance does.

When you’re lucky enough that your employer pays for your health insurance, every cent they contribute in health insurance premiums is 100% tax-free. Basically this means you enjoy the protection of health insurance at a discount, which you wouldn’t get if you were responsible for buying it yourself.

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