PAYING TRILLIONS FOR COVERAGE COULD BE PAINFUL

THE TENNESSEAN
Jun 15, 2009

Covering the estimated 46 million people nationwide without medical insurance won't come cheap. One recent analysis puts the cost at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. LARRY VAN HORN, who runs the health-care MBA programs at Vanderbilt University, said taxing all health-care benefits would save the government about $250 billion a year. "Just as importantly, it will result in changes to the design of health plans and reduction in demand for health-care services," he said. "At the end of the day, we can't afford what we're consuming now, so we need to consume less."