You've touched on one of the inequities of our system, the essentially unequal tax treatment of individual versus group health insurance. Group health insurance plans are tax advantaged in two ways; 1) what the employer pays towards coverage is a deductible business expense, and 2) the employee's share of their insurance premium costs can be deducted from their paychecks on a pretax basis and reducing their net cost of buying health insurance.
Neither of these tax advantages apply to individual health insurance coverage a person might purchase for themselves. Though, as of January 1, 2014, under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, person's purchasing individual health insurance through the government marketplaces may qualify for an advanced premium tax subsidy depending upon their income level.
So, in simple terms, in the group health insurance world you may be able to pay for your portion of your health insurance on a pre-tax basis but in the individual health insurance world you are generally in a post-tax payment environment (I'm not going to stray into how some small business owners structure their business expenses and taxes as it regards these matters).
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Neither of these tax advantages apply to individual health insurance coverage a person might purchase for themselves. Though, as of January 1, 2014, under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, person's purchasing individual health insurance through the government marketplaces may qualify for an advanced premium tax subsidy depending upon their income level.
So, in simple terms, in the group health insurance world you may be able to pay for your portion of your health insurance on a pre-tax basis but in the individual health insurance world you are generally in a post-tax payment environment (I'm not going to stray into how some small business owners structure their business expenses and taxes as it regards these matters).