Public Subsidies and Private Markets: Coverage Expansions in the Current Insurance Environment
Many proposals for incremental expansion of health insurance coverage would provide subsidies for the purchase of nongroup policies. This paper assesses how subsidy options might play out in regulated or unregulated markets and explores the possible trade-off between two distinct policy goals: maximizing the absolute number of families with insurance or maximizing access for the highest-risk families.
This paper is part of the Kaiser Incremental Health Reform Project.