Selected Options for Expanding Health Insurance CoverageAnalyzes two major approaches for substantially reducing the number of uninsured people. One would expand employment-based coverage, while the other would cover more people under Medicaid. A third approach would be a combination of the two. Covers: advantages and disadvantages of each plan, alternative specifications, and illustrations of each plan. Charts and tables. |
Common terms and phrases
1990 Current Population 200 percent 24 or older 25 hours alternative beneficiaries benefits billions of 1991 Budget Office estimates Census Division Central 1.7 Chapter Child under 18 coinsurance Congressional Budget Office contributions costs covered Current Population Survey currently uninsured dependents East North Central effects elderly employment-based coverage employment-based insurance employment-based plans employment-based policies Enactment Millions erage exemption expanding Medicaid family incomes federal deficit firms with fewer head or spouse health insurance coverage health spending ILLUSTRATIVE EMPLOYER MANDATE ILLUSTRATIVE MEDICAID EXPANSION illustrative option increase live in families March 1990 Current Medicaid coverage Medicaid spending Medicare national health expenditures nonelderly North Central number of uninsured offer insurance Office estimates based out-of-pocket expenses percent of poverty Percentage of Uninsured ployees poverty level poverty threshold premiums primary payer private insurance provide coverage Race White small firms source of insurance spouse is employed surance taxes unin wages West South Central
Popular passages
Page 5 - COMPREHENSIVE MAJOR MEDICAL INSURANCE - a policy designed to give the protection offered by both a basic and a major medical health insurance policy. It is characterized by a low deductible amount, a co-insurance feature, and high maximum benefits, usually $5,000 to $25,000 or higher.
Page 4 - SEC. 1811. The insurance program for which entitlement is established by section 226 provides (basic protection against the costs of hospital and related post-hospital services in accordance with this part for individuals who are age 65 or over and are entitled to retirement benefits under title II of this Act or under the railroad retirement system.
Page 14 - ... virtually all the costs of its beneficiaries, Medicare pays only 45 percent of the total health costs of the aged and disabled eligible for coverage. While many private insurance plans place annual limits on out-of-pocket costs once an enrolled individual has incurred a 1 See S. Long and J. Rodgers, The Effects of Being Uninsured on Health Care Service Use: Estimates from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, Bureau of the Census, SIPP Working Paper #9012, 1990.
Page 12 - D., Uninsured in the United States; The Nonelderly Population without Health Insurance, (Employee Benefit Research Institute, Washington, DC), October, 1988. 2. National insurance statistics for 1980 and 1985 are based on published data from the US Census Bureau, calculations by CDF. 3. These and other 1986 national insurance statistics for children are based on unpublished data from the US Census Bureau, calculations by...
Page 19 - VIII.C. experience rating, a method of establishing health insurance premiums in which the premium is based on the average cost of actual or anticipated health care used by various groups and subgroups of subscribers and thus varies with their experience or with such variables as age.
Page 25 - Drugs (6) (6) SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office estimates based on data from the Health Care Financing Administration, HCFA Form-64. NOTES: Nursing home expenditures include spending for nursing home facilities and intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded.
Page xv - ... buy in" to Medicaid based on a sliding scale of contributions, thereby avoiding any "notches" where a small increase in income would cause a substantial increase in the cost of participating. Specifically, the contribution or "premium...
Page 5 - Another 3.6 million retired and active-duty military and their dependents receive medical care through military hospitals and an insurance program called the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). (People who receive their primary health insurance coverage through the military hospitals and CHAMPUS are classified as "employment-based...
Page xi - Medicaid program-could substantially reduce the number of uninsured people, while keeping most existing arrangements for insurance intact because four-fifths of the uninsured live in families where at least one adult is employed and three-fifths have family incomes below 200 percent of their poverty thresholds. HEALTH INSURANCE AND THE UNINSURED Most people-about 85 percent of the nonelderly and 99 percent of the elderly-have health insurance.
Page 18 - Children might be covered by either spouse's plan at the employee's discretion, but would have to be covered by at least one of them; • Employers would have to provide benefits...