Variations in health insurance coverage: benefits vs. premiums.
Renewed national interest in market forces to promote more efficient and cost-conscious behavior by patients and providers increasingly focuses on the structure of private health insurance benefits. Two features of procompetitive legislative proposals are considered: a ceiling on tax-free employer insurance premiums and offering greater choice of insurance plans. The interests of efficiency and equity invoke different kinds of risks and transfers; no single institutional approach is likely to yield the promised benefits.
D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003669:Deductibles and Coinsurance; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics*; D007183:Income Tax / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D007342:Insurance Benefits; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States