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Publications
Author: Blumberg, Linda J.
Age Rating Under Comprehensive Health Care Reform: : Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Household Financial Burdens (Policy Briefs/Timely Analysis of Health Policy Issues)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg , Matthew Buettgens , Bowen Garrett
Congressional proposals health care reform proposals have differed in the premium rating rules that would be applied to non-elderly adults. Some have proposed allowing premiums for the older adults to be as much as 5 times as high as those for younger adults (5:1 rating), while others would limit the highest premiums to be twice that of the lowest (2:1 rating). This analysis uses the Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) to compare the financial implications of the premium rating choice (5:1, 2:1, and 1:1) for households of different ages, incomes, and sizes.
Published: 10/07/09
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Health Savings Accounts and High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans : Implications for Those with High Medical Costs, Low Incomes, and the Uninsured (Policy Briefs/Timely Analysis of Health Policy Issues)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg , Lisa Clemans-Cope
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and high-deductible health plans are prominently featured in many discussions of health reform. The hope of supporters is that they will make individuals more prudent purchasers of medical care. However, the tax structure and incentives built into HSAs make them most attractive to the high-income and the healthy, populations already advantaged by the current system. HSA/high deductible plans shift more of the health financing burden onto those using significant amounts of care, with negative ramifications for the low-income and high-need. Nor is it clear that cost-containment, higher value shopping, or reductions in the uninsured will follow.
Published: 02/03/09
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Can a Child Health Insurance Tax Credit Serve as an Effective Substitute for SCHIP Expansion? (Policy Briefs/Health Policy Online)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg , Genevieve M. Kenney
As the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has come up for reauthorization, the coverage of children with incomes above 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) has become a contentious issue. Proposals have surfaced that would subsidizing the purchase of health insurance for children between 200 and 300 percent of the FPL using tax credits and the private insurance market, as an alternative to allowing states to continue enrolling these children in SCHIP coverage. This analysis compares the family financial burdens of covering children under SCHIP and under a refundable tax credit providing a $1400 per child subsidy.
Published: 10/18/07
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The President's Health Care Proposal Misses the Point (Opinion)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg , John Holahan
President Bush's new health care proposal ignores the most important problems in the current health care system: a lack of guaranteed affordable, accessible, and adequate insurance coverage for those with modest incomes or with high health needs. The proposal's focus on limiting the tax exemption for employer contributions and creating tax equity between the purchase of group and non-group insurance does virtually nothing to redress this situation. In fact, the proposed tax change would continue to reward those with high incomes more than low-income individuals, and the tax equity across markets could endanger coverage for the most vulnerable in most states.
Published: 02/01/07
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Most Households' Medical Expenses Exceed HSA Deductibles (Article/Tax Facts)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg , Leonard E. Burman
The 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill created Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), tax-free savings accounts for people who are covered by a "high-deductible health insurance plan," either purchased directly or on their behalf by an employer. The qualifying health insurance plan must have a deductible of at least $1,000 for single coverage and $2,000 for family coverage. Some preventative care may be covered by insurance, but all elective procedures and medicine is subject to the deductibles.
Published: 08/16/04
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HSAs Won't Cure Medicare's Ills (Opinion)
Author(s):
Leonard E. Burman , Linda J. Blumberg
Here's one message from the new "bipartisan" Medicare bill currently being debated in Congress: Low-income elderly people are having a hard time paying for their prescription drugs, so we need... another tax cut for rich people! Today's tax cut for rich people--health savings accounts (HSA)--has been all but lost in the debate about the proposed new Medicare prescription drug benefit, but this wolf in sheep's clothing shouldn't be overlooked. It is bad tax policy and bad health policy.
Published: 11/21/03
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Health Insurance Tax Credits: Potential for Expanding Coverage (Policy Briefs)
Author(s):
Linda J. Blumberg
Tax credits are being touted as possible mechanisms for expanding health insurance coverage in the United States. Analysts, members of Congress, and the Bush administration have all developed tax credit proposals in the past few years. However, although tax credit approaches are clearly appealing in certain respects, they are probably not the most effective tools for expanding health insurance coverage.
Published: 08/01/01
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