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Curing Americans without health insurance

by Tony Novak, MBA, MT, OnlineAdviser at Freedom Benefits   updated 11/20/2011

SEPT. 8, 2004 - Freedom Benefits Association (www.FreedomBenefits.org), a provider of employee benefit designs for small businesses, endorses the following plan for reducing the estimated 45 million Americans without health insurance. This plan is currently being promoted with minor variations by the health insurance industry association (AHIA) and various consumer groups.

The number of Americans without health insurance will be most effectively cured by adopting the following policies:

1) Using wage tax incentives to promote voluntary coverage among an estimated ten million uninsured higher-income workers.
2) Providing refundable tax credits for an estimated 15 million uninsured Americans who are not eligible for public programs or employer plans.
3) Intensifying efforts to cover an estimated nine million adults and children who are eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid and the State Children' s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
4) Giving states the option of expanding Medicaid and SCHIP to provide access to coverage for an estimated two million Americans living below poverty who are not eligible for those programs
5) Providing bridge loans or temporary financing to help an estimated four million middle-income workers maintain their coverage when they become unemployed.
6) Creating high risk purchasing pools to cover an estimated one million uninsured individuals with especially high health costs.
7) Providing an estimated two million uninsured individuals living near poverty access through public financing of private health coverage.
This chart sorts the uninsured groups according to size and summarizes the recommendations.

 

Group	Size	Primary Concerns	Approach Most likely to be Effective
Middle income individuals not eligible for employer plans	15 million	Price	Tax incentives and promotion of options
Workers eligible for employer health plans	10 million	Price	Wage tax credits
Eligible for public assistance but not enrolled	9 million	Access	Communication and Outreach
Provide financing to pay for short term coverage for temporarily unemployed	4 million	Cash Flow	Government-assisted financing
Low income but not eligible for public assistance	4 million	Price	Include in current welfare programs
Individuals with catastrophic health care costs	1 million	Availability	Publicly assisted High risk pools

It appears that a relatively simple change in the tax law to give financial incentives to maintain health coverage would directly address more than half of the uninsured group. The rest can be addressed through modifications of federal COBRA law and existing state-based programs, especially HIPAA-mandated high-risk health coverage pools, and an increased emphasis on education and promotion of the existing options.

FreedomBenefits.org is a non-profit provider of low cost benefit plan documents, employee communications and designs for small businesses. FreedomBenefits.net includes a listing of low cost health insurance plans that offer online enrollment.

Tony Novak is a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of  Certified Public Accountants, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau.

Comments, feedback & updates are welcome.  Tel. (800) 609-0683