Health insurance and tax policy

The U.S. tax policy on health insurance favors only those offered a group insurance through their employers. This policy is highly regressive since the subsidy takes the form of deductions from the progressive tax system. The paper investigates alternatives to the current policy. We find that the complete removal of the subsidy results in a significant reduction in the insurance coverage and serious welfare deterioration. However, eliminating regressiveness in the group insurance subsidy and extending benefits to the private insurance market improve welfare and raise the coverage. Our work is the first in highlighting the importance of studying health policy in a general equilibrium framework with an endogenous demand for the health insurance. We use the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to calibrate the process for income, health expenditure shocks, and health insurance offer status and succeed in producing the pattern of insurance demand as observed in the data, which serve as a solid benchmark for the policy experiments.

U.S. tax policy and health insurance demand: can a regressive policy improve welfare?

The U.S. tax policy on health insurance is regressive because it favors only those offered group insurance through their employers, who tend to have a relatively high income. Moreover, the subsidy takes the form of deductions from the progressive income tax system, giving high-income earners a larger subsidy. To understand the effects of the policy, we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogenous agents and an endogenous demand for health insurance. We use the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to calibrate the process for income, health expenditures, and health insurance offer status through employers and succeed in matching the pattern of insurance demand as observed in the data. We find that despite the regressiveness of the current policy, a complete removal of the subsidy would result in a partial collapse of the group insurance market, a significant reduction in the insurance coverage, and a reduction in welfare coverage. There is, however, room for raising the coverage and significantly improving welfare by extending a refundable credit to the individual insurance market.

Taxing capital? : not a bad idea after all!

In this paper we quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks, where households also differ permanently with respect to their ability to generate income. The welfare criterion we employ is ex-ante (before ability is realized) expected (with respect to uninsurable productivity shocks) utility of a newborn in a stationary equilibrium. Embedded in this welfare criterion is a concern of the policy maker for insurance against idiosyncratic shocks and redistribution among agents of different abilities. Such insurance and redistribution can be achieved by progressive labor income taxes or taxation of capital income, or both. The policy maker has then to trade off these concerns against the standard distortions these taxes generate for the labor supply and capital accumulation decision. We find that the optimal capital income tax rate is not only positive, but is significantly positive. The optimal (marginal and average) tax rate on capital is 36%, in conjunction with a progressive labor income tax code that is, to a first approximation, a flat tax of 23% with a deduction that corresponds to about $6,000 (relative to an average income of households in the model of$35,000). We argue that the high optimal capital income tax is mainly driven by the life cycle structure of the model whereas the optimal progressivity of the labor income tax is due to the insurance and redistribution role of the income tax system. Klassifizierung: E62, H21, H2

Taxing Capital? Not a Bad Idea After All!

In this paper we quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks, where households also differ permanently with respect to their ability to generate income. The welfare criterion we employ is ex-ante (before ability is realized) expected (with respect to uninsurable productivity shocks) utility of a newborn in a stationary equilibrium. Embedded in this welfare criterion is a concern of the policy maker for insurance against idiosyncratic shocks and redistribution among agents of different abilities. Such insurance and redistribution can be achieved by progressive labor income taxes or taxation of capital income, or both. The policy maker has then to trade off these concerns against the standard distortions these taxes generate for the labor supply and capital accumulation decision. We find that the optimal capital income tax rate is not only positive, but is significantly positive. The optimal (marginal and average) tax rate on capital is 36%, in conjunction with a progressive labor income tax code that is, to a first approximation, a flat tax of 23% with a deduction that corresponds to about $6,000 (relative to an average income of households in the model of$35,000). We argue that the high optimal capital income tax is mainly driven by the life cycle structure of the model whereas the optimal progressivity of the labor income tax is due to the insurance and redistribution role of the income tax system.Progressive Taxation, Capital Taxation, Optimal Taxation

Taxing Capital? Not a Bad Idea After All!

In this paper we quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks, where households also differ permanently with respect to their ability to generate income. The welfare criterion we employ is ex-ante (before ability is realized) expected (with respect to uninsurable productivity shocks) utility of a newborn in a stationary equilibrium. Embedded in this welfare criterion is a concern of the policy maker for insurance against idiosyncratic shocks and redistribution among agents of different abilities. Such insurance and redistribution can be achieved by progressive labor income taxes or taxation of capital income, or both. The policy maker has then to trade off these concerns against the standard distortions these taxes generate for the labor supply and capital accumulation decision. We find that in our model the optimal capital income tax rate is significantly positive. The optimal (marginal and average) tax rate on capital is 36%, in conjunction with a progressive labor income tax code that is, to a first approximation, a flat tax of 23% with a deduction that corresponds to about $6,000 (relative to an average income of households in the model of$35,000). We argue that the high optimal capital income tax is mainly driven by the life cycle structure of the model whereas the optimal progressivity of the labor income tax is due to the insurance and redistribution role of the income tax system.

Why small businesses were hit harder by the recent recession

Although both large and small businesses felt the sting of job losses during the 2007-09 downturn, small firms experienced disproportionate declines. A study of the recession’s employment effect on small firms suggests that poor sales and economic uncertainty were the main reasons for their weak performance and sluggish recovery—problems that affected large firms too, but to a lesser degree. Although a tightened credit supply constrained some small firms, weak consumer demand for the firms’ products and services was a more pressing factor, reducing revenues and dampening new investment spending.Recessions ; Small business ; Uncertainty ; Supply and demand ; Employment ; Credit

Minimum Incidence Kanker Had Primer di Yogyakarta

There is a tendency of primary liver cancer between 1970-1973 corresponding to the introduction of liver biopsy in Yogyakarta. Liver cancer had previously been found to be the most frequent tumour in necropsy material in Java. In the series, composed of biopsies only, it accounted for 36.8% of all abdominal cancers biopsied in Yogyakarta in 1973 and is thus more frequent than indicated by the total material covering a 4-year period (1970-1973). Based on the data of the Department of Pathology and population in 1976 by utilizing the formula the primary liver cancer incidence in 1974 through 1978 is provided. It seems that the minimum incidence of primary liver cancer in Yogyakarta is lower than the incidence in other countries in Asia and Africa Key Words: liver cancer - cancer registration -incidence of hepatoma - racial predisposition for cancer - viral hepatiti

Cranial unifocal langerhans cell histiocytosis in a female child: a difficult case with S-100 and CD1a immunonegativity

A 13-years old female child was carried to Dr. Sardjito General Hospital, Yogyakarta by her mother with chiefcomplaint of a mass on her forehead. Since eight months prior to her visiting, she had a mass on her forehead whichbecame larger slowly without tenderness and had no fever. Clinical examination revealed a well circumscribedmass, 3 cm in diameter, fixed, with rubbery consistency. The skull X-ray revealed a punch out lesion in frontal bone.The head CT scanning revealed a destruction of frontal bone. Clinical diagnosis of dermoid cyst was determined,excision and curettage was performed. Gross examination showed 2.5 cc fragmented tissue, brownish yellow, withrubbery consistency. A diagnosis of benign histiocytosis (Langerhans cell histiocytosis or non-Langerhans cellhistiocytosis) of frontal bone was determined based on morphological and immunohistochemical examination. Theaim of this presented article was to report a rare case of cranial unifocal Langerhans cell histiocytosis in a femalechild with S-100 and CD1a immunonegativity, and to discuss how to determine its diagnosis based on literaturereview.Key words: Langerhans cell histiocytosis - juvenile xanthogranuloma – reticulohistiocytoma - eosinophilic granuloma– S100 – CD1

Studies on the Synthesis and Characterization of Encapsulated Organogels for Controlled Drug Delivery Applications

Over the years, biopolymeric microparticles have been associated with the leaching of the internal phase. The present work was aimed at developing a new strategy in negotiating the problem of leaching from the microparticles. We hypothesized that gelation of the internal phase as organogels (core) and their encapsulation within the alginate microparticles may prevent leaching. Organogels were prepared using natural fatty acyl sources and synthetic source. Natural sources include vegetable fats (cocoa butter, mango butter), animal fat (lanolin) and fatty acid having both plant and animal origin (stearic acid), whereas, synthetic source include the mixture of Span 80 and Tween 80. Prior to encapsulation, the physicochemical, thermal and mechanical properties of the organogels were characterized in depth. The gelation mechanism and crystallization phenomenon during the formation of vegetable fat and stearic acid based organogels were critically evaluated. The predicted gelation mechanism in vegetable fat based organogels is instantaneous nucleation coupled with one or two dimensional growth of the fat crystals. On the other hand, stearate molecules followed heterogeneous nucleation coupled with one-dimensional growth during the formation of stearate organogels. The aforementioned organogels were encapsulated within the alginate microparticles by ionotropic gelation method. Microscopic, XRD and DSC studies confirmed the successful encapsulation of organogels as the core material of the developed microparticles. The organogel encapsulated microparticles prevented the leaching of the internal phase and improved the drug encapsulation efficiency. Presence of semi-solid organogels as the core material facilitated the controlled release of the drugs (model drugs: metronidazole and ciprofloxacin in stearate formulations) from the microparticles. The developed formulations showed good antimicrobial properties against Escherichia coli. The microparticles were found to be biocompatible and mucoadhesive in nature when checked against mammalian L929 fibroblast cells and goat’s small intestine, respectively. Based on the results, it was concluded that the developed formulations (organogels and microparticles) may be used as the controlled drug delivery vehicles for in vivo applications

Taxing Capital? Not a Bad Idea After All!

Premi a l'excel·lència investigadora. 2010Publicat també com a : CEPR Discussion Paper - ISSN 0265-8003 Núm. 5929 (2006), p. 1-55We quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks and permanent productivity differences of households. The optimal capital income tax rate is significantly positive at 36 percent. The optimal progressive labor income tax is, roughly, a flat tax of 23 percent with a deduction of #7,200 (relative to average household income of #42,000). The high optimal capital income tax is mainly driven by the life-cycle structure of the model, whereas the optimal progressivity of the labor income tax is attributable to the insurance and redistribution role of the tax system. (JEL E13, H21, H24, H25