For more than 75 years, the IRS has allowed employers who provide health insurance for their workers to exclude the money that they spend on this insurance from each worker’s taxable income. In recent years, many economists and public policy experts have expressed strong opposition to this tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI).
The NAVCP, however, vehemently opposes all initiatives to discontinue or cap the ESI tax exclusion. Regarding this exclusion as an essential part of the American health care system, the NAVCP points out that 80 percent of all employers offer a vision benefit, while the health benefit exchanges of the Affordable Care Acts specifically exclude stand-alone vision care insurance. Therefore, US citizens can only obtain comprehensive vision care benefits through ESI or by independently purchasing an individual plan at full cost.