New Study Shows Vast Majority of Californians Would Not Benefit from Governor's Tax Credit for Healthcare

“For starters, most of us aren’t even eligible for the governor’s tax credit in any size, shape or amount. The tax credit doesn’t apply if you get your healthcare through your job, no matter how much you spend on healthcare. Look a little further and you find that even then, the credit only applies if you earn between $26,000 and $36,000 a year for an individual.

“It gets worse. For the tiny fraction of people who actually qualify, it turns out that the tax credit only applies to the cost of the premium – not the deductibles or out-of-pocket costs.

“Look closer still, and you find that the tax credit only applies to the cost of the most bare bones coverage. Of course, bare bones coverage includes very high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs (which could be as much as $10,000 a year). And there’s no tax credit for the costs of coverage that would include the eye doctor or the dentist.

“This is like the fine print you get from a Blue Cross policy; you think you’re covered, until you actually try to use your coverage. In short, the Governor’s tax credits are no solution to the problem of making healthcare affordable. And if healthcare isn’t affordable, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.

“It’s OUR Healthcare is committed to real, affordable healthcare reform, and we urge the Governor and his healthcare team to take the issue of affordability seriously and address it by developing substantive, broadly applicable protections.

“For more detail, you can find the California Budget Project report (‘Would the Governor’s Proposed Tax Credit Make Health Care Affordable?’) at www.cbp.org.”

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