Coverage

This paper provides a conceptual analysis of alternative mechanisms (tax credits, public programs, and direct subsidies) for expanding health insurance coverage. The paper, which is part of the Kaiser Incremental Health Reform Project, discusses the likely impacts alternative approaches on a variety of outcomes including efficiency in increasing coverage and…

This paper discusses the impacts of the Heritage Foundation proposal for expanding health insurance coverage. Under the proposed tax reform, the employer tax exclusion and all other deductions for health-related expenses would be repealed. A new refundable tax credit would be created for unreimbursed medical expenses. This paper is part…

This paper examines a method for making health insurance more affordable to people who may lose health insurance when they lose or change jobs. A proposal for subsidizing the purchase of group health insurance through COBRA for employees and their dependents who lose their health insurance coverage when the employee…

Enactment of the Children's Health Insurance Program has been accompanied by concerns that new coverage will “crowd out” private health insurance coverage. Part of the Kaiser Incremental Health Reform Project, this paper reviews existing empirical literature on the magnitude of crowd-out and discusses implications for CHIP. Issue Paper

The report, based on an analysis of Hewitt Associates' client database, presents new trend data on the prevalence of retiree health coverage sponsored by large employers and finds a continued erosion of retiree health benefits. The report also includes findings from a new survey assessing how large employers might change…

This paper discusses ethical issues in incremental approaches to expanding health insurance coverage. Although any reduction in the number of uninsured is morally desirable, there are real moral differences between different policy options. This paper, which is part of the Kaiser Incremental Health Reform Project, examines these moral differences by…

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…

This paper explores the major policy compromises embodied in the CHIP program. It focuses on two areas: the relative control of the federal and state governments over the program, and the design of the program in relation to the private, employer-based health insurance market. This paper is part of the…

Toplines This is a copy of the results of a telephone survey conducted on a random, national sample of nearly 4,000 African American, Latino and white adults, 18 years of age and older. The questions were designed to reveal what each respondent believed about the impact of race and ethnicity…

Recent expansions in public health insurance for children and changes in welfare laws present states with the challenge of identifying and enrolling the large population of uninsured children in their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). This study describes and analyzes the outreach and enrollment strategies and systems in…