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The Commonwealth Fund convened a conference in December of 2000 in Washington D.C. to explore options for expanding health insurance coverage for working Americans.
These twelve papers from "Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans," are available from the fund free of charge. They require acrobat reader.
View these from commonwealth fund
directly.
The reports and linked summaries on this page are :
Challenges and Options for Increasing the Number of Americans with
Health Insurance (January 2001). Sherry A. Glied, Joseph A. Mailman School of
Public Health, Columbia University. This overview paper summarizes the 10 option
papers written as part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for
Working Americans. View this entire report (ACR).
Incremental Coverage Expansion Options: Detailed Table Summaries to Accompany Option Papers Commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance (January 2001). Sherry A. Glied and Danielle H. Ferry, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. This paper, a companion to publication #415, presents a detailed side-by-side look at all the option papers in the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans.
View this entire report (ACR).
A Health Insurance Tax Credit for Uninsured Workers (December 2000). (December 2000). Larry Zelenak, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. A key issue for uninsured adult workers is the cost of insurance. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes using a tax credit to help workers afford the cost of coverage. It assumes age-/sex-adjusted credits averaging $2,000 per adult or $4,000 per family, with a full refundable "credit" for those with incomes at or below 200% percent of poverty. The paper analyzes administrative and other issues related to the use of such tax credits.
View this entire report (ACR).
Public Subsidies for Required Employee
Contributions Toward Employer-Sponsored Insurance (December 2000). Mark Merlis, Institute for Health Policy Solutions. Some uninsured workers have access to employer group coverage but find the cost of their premium shares unaffordable. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, examines the potential for using a tax credit or other incentive to help employees pay their share of premium costs in employer-sponsored plans. The paper analyzes how such premium assistance might work as an accompaniment to a tax credit for those without access to employer plans.
View this entire report (ACR).
Markets for Individual Health Insurance: Can We Make Them Work with Incentives to Purchase Insurance? (December 2000). Katherine Swartz, Harvard School of Public Health. Efforts to improve the functioning of individual insurance markets require policy makers to trade off access for the highest-risk groups against keeping access for the lowest risk-groups. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, discusses how individual insurance markets might best be designed in view of this trade-off.
View this entire report (ACR).
Buying into Public Coverage: Expanding Access by Permitting Families to Use Tax Credits to Buy into Medicaid or CHIP Programs (December 2000). Alan Weil, The Urban Institute. Medicaid and CHIP offer administrative structures and plan arrangements with the capacity to enroll individuals and families. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes permitting, but not requiring, tax-credit recipients to use their credits to buy into Medicaid or CHIP.
View this entire report (ACR).
Private Purchasing Pools to Harness Individual Tax Credits for Consumers (December 2000). Richard E. Curtis, Edward Neuschler, and Rafe Forland, Institute for Health Policy Solutions. Combining small employers into groups offers the potential of improved benefits, plan choice, and/or reduced premium costs. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes the establishment of private purchasing pools that would be open to workers (and their families) without an offer of employer-sponsored insurance or in firms with up to 50 employees. All tax-credit recipients would be required to use their premium credits in these pools.
View this entire report (ACR).
Increasing Health Insurance Coverage Through an Extended Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (December 2000). Beth C. Fuchs, Health Policy Alternatives, Inc. The FEHBP has often been proposed as a possible base to build on for group coverage. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes an extension of FEHBP (E-FEHBP) that would operate in parallel with the existing program. The proposal would require anyone qualifying for a tax credit to obtain it through E-FEHBP and would also permit employees of small firms (<10 workers) to purchase health insurance through the program. The proposal would also provide public reinsurance for E-FEHBP, further lowering the premium costs faced by those eligible for the program.
View this entire report (ACR).
Allowing Small Businesses and the Self-Employed to Buy Health Care Coverage Through Public Programs (December 2000). Sara Rosenbaum, Phyllis C. Borzi, and Vernon Smith. Public programs such as CHIP and Medicaid offer the possibility of economies of scale for group coverage for small employers as well as individuals. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes allowing the self-employed and those in small businesses to buy coverage through these public plans, and providing premium assistance to make it easier for them to do so.
View this entire report (ACR).
A Federal Tax Credit to Encourage Employers to Offer Health Coverage (December 2000). Jack A. Meyer and Elliot K. Wicks, Economic and Social Research Institute. Employers who do not currently offer health benefits to their employees cite costs as the primary concern. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, examines the potential of offering tax credits (or other financial incentives) to employers of low-wage workers to induce them to offer coverage.
View this entire report (ACR).
A Workable Solution for the Pre-Medicare Population (December 2000). Pamela Farley Short, Dennis G. Shea, and M. Paige Powell, Pennsylvania State University. Adults nearing but not yet eligible for Medicare are at high risk of being uninsured, especially if they are in poor health. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, proposes new options to enable those 62 and older early buy-in to Medicare (or to subsidize other coverage) through premium assistance for those with low lifetime incomes and new health IRA or tax-deduction accounts for those with higher incomes.
View this entire report (ACR).
Transitional Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage (December 2000). Jonathan Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. The unemployed and those switching jobs often lose coverage due to an inability to pay premiums. This paper, part of the series Strategies to Expand Health Insurance for Working Americans, suggests ways that the existing COBRA program could be enhanced to help avoid these uninsured spells.
View this entire report (ACR).
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