title: Affordable health benefits for workers without employer coverage.
abstract: With 42 million individuals lacking health insurance in 1996, an increase of 1.1 million uninsured from the previous year, new initiatives to deal with health insurance problems merit a high priority among domestic policy initiatives. This paper examines the opportunities for assisting full-time workers (and their families) who do not receive employer-paid health insurance-a group that now includes 49 million individuals-by using three policy tools that Congress and President Clinton have already agreed to use in recent healthcare legislation: (a) equitable tax assistance; (b) market reforms; and (c) competition among health plans that offer economical benefits. Estimates for a model plan illustrate that such strategies could make decent private health insurance more affordable and more accessible for workers and their families who want to purchase it; family insurance protection, with guaranteed issue of insurance and large-group-rated premiums, could be offered at potential savings of 42% (or more). Premiums for worker's coverage, after tax assistance, would be below $1,200 per year, i.e., less than 60 cents per hour. These market-oriented reforms can be accomplished with a limited government role, and, after start-up costs, ongoing federal expenses would be modest, predictable, and controllable. When combined with the new $24 billion child health initiative to assist low-income families, the proposed plan would provide considerable progress toward universal access to affordable insurance coverage.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Etheredge
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004465:Economic Competition; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013660:Taxes; D014481:United States; D019472:Universal Health Insurance / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence