Responsible Health Reform: Competition, Innovation, and Individual Control

Responsible Health Reform: Competition, Innovation, and Individual Control
American Enterprise Institute Event. Thursday, March 13, 2008, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. 188 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

At this event, Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will offer a market-based reform proposal that relies on stronger competition in the health system, tax reforms, individual responsibility and ownership, and more active consumer involvement in medical decisions. Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute and Thomas P. Miller of the AEI will offer their assessment of the key features of the Burr-Coburn proposal, and AEI’s Joseph Antos will moderate.
Registration.

How Non-Group Health Coverage Varies with Income

Kaiser Family Foundation. How Non-Group Health Coverage Varies with Income.  Washington, DC: KFF Paper prepared by Paul Jacobs and Gary Claxton. February 2008. Full report (pdf)

With some federal and state policy makers considering ways to encourage more people to purchase non-group, or individual, health care coverage, an analysis by Kaiser researchers released this week examines how often people at different income levels buy such insurance when they do not have access to benefits through an employer or a public program. The analysis finds that relatively few people at lower incomes purchase non- group coverage, with one in 20 purchasing it among those with incomes at the federal poverty level ($18,660 for a family of four in 2003 dollars). As income increases, the coverage rate grows, though even at four times the poverty level, only about a quarter of individuals without access to alternative coverage purchased non-group coverage.