Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to decrease the impact of prescription drug costs on health insurance premiums has received much discussion during Cuomo’s State of the State tour.

In short, Cuomo wants to shed light how much drug manufacturers spend on researching, developing, producing and distributing drugs compared to the billions of dollars spent on marketing, advertising, and promotional efforts such as co-pay coupons; understand how much profit drug companies are making on the various products and restore tools that allow health plans to ensure consumers are using effective, affordable drugs to counteract aggressive marketing of unnecessary, high cost drugs.

It sounds good. Here’s something that sounds even better — make health coverage less expensive for everyone.

Cuomo could have done so by simply letting $4.7 billion in state health insurance taxes lapse. Unfortunately for everyone who purchases health insurance, the following items are included in the governor’s 2017-18 budget proposal (with a three-year commitment): $1.1 billion from a tax on health plans for each covered life that they insure, known as the Covered Lives Assessment; another $3.1 billion raised through a 9.63 percent tax on sales from hospitals and other health care services; $149 million raised through assessments on health plans that is used to fund the state Insurance Department; and $350 million in premium taxes on those who receive health coverage from commercial insurers: $350 million.

Given the recent news from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that tax collections continued to be less than projected through three quarters of the 2016 fiscal year, it is unlikely any revenue will be pulled out of the state budget. Legislators should work, however, toward eliminating New York’s dependence on health care related taxes and fees that drive up the cost of health insurance on the average consumer so these fees can expire in 2020.