The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) issued the following statement regarding proposals from some policymakers that would increase taxes on American workers’ health benefits to finance health reform. NBGH represents 300 large employers — including 60 of the Fortune 100 — providing health benefits to over 55 million Americans:

“With our nation reeling from the worst economy in generations, the idea that now is the time to increase taxes on 161 million American workers’ health benefits boggles the mind.

“We have serious concerns that modifying the tax exclusion of health benefits could have the unintended consequence of driving the cost of health benefits higher and potentially force businesses and/or workers to drop private coverage altogether. In particular, modifying the tax exclusion for health benefits could have a disproportionate impact on older workers and Americans residing in states with comparatively low costs of living or more efficient health care systems.

“As a vocal and steadfast advocate of comprehensive national health care reform, NBGH strongly supports bipartisan efforts to expand coverage to all Americans and make the hard choices around delivery system and payment reforms that would eliminate the hundreds of billions of dollars spent annually on care that is wasteful, duplicative, and even harmful.”