@techreport{NBERw13767,
 title = "The Effect of Tax Preferences on Health Spending",
 author = "John F. Cogan and R. Glenn Hubbard and Daniel P. Kessler",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "13767",
 year = "2008",
 month = "January",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w13767",
 abstract = {In this paper, we estimate the effect of the tax preference for health insurance on health care spending using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys from 1996-2005.  We use the fact that Social Security taxes are only levied on earnings below a statutory threshold to identify the impact of the tax preference.  Because employer-sponsored health insurance premiums are excluded from Social Security payroll taxes, workers who earn just below the Social Security tax threshold receive a larger tax preference for health insurance than workers who earn just above it.  We find a significant effect of the tax preference, consistent with previous research.},
}