In the United States, every dollar you earn as wages is subject to taxes, but every dollar you get in health insurance is not.
This system, which has been around since the 1940s, leads to some distortions in pay and health insurance. Companies may be more likely to give you a raise in the form of richer benefits than higher pay, because it’s a better value. And the federal government spends a lot more money, in the form of lost taxes, to help rich people buy health insurance than it does to help middle-income people.
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