Making health reform work without employer mandates.
Requiring employers to furnish health insurance may be a politically expedient way to expand coverage to the uninsured, but it will surely undermine economic competitiveness and contribute to greater unemployment at a time when the U.S. is struggling to regain its economic strength. In the present environment, a wiser course of action would require that individual households, not employers, become the entity responsible for obtaining health insurance. Under such a scenario, limits would be established on the percentage of after-tax income devoted to health insurance, subsidies would be granted to low-income individuals to purchase insurance, and a basic benefit package would be developed that limits payments to services meeting efficacy and cost-effectiveness criteria.
Sloan Graduate Program in Health Services Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
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Battistella
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Kuder
D005380:Financing, Government / Q000458:organization & administration; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000458:organization & administration; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics*; D007221:Industry / Q000191:economics; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D017059:Models, Econometric; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States