Covering America: A Commentary on Three Approaches

Publication Date:

Publisher: Economic and Social Research Institute

Author(s): M. Chernew

Research Area: Health

Type: White Paper

Abstract:

Michael Chernew examines three of the proposals prepared for Volume I of this project. The proposals—by Jonathan Gruber; John Holahan, Len Nichols, and Linda Blumberg; and Sara Singer, Alan Garber, and Alain Enthoven—can be categorized as "voluntary insurance pool proposals." After summarizing the three proposals, the author evaluates their effectiveness in terms of how they would affect the number of insured, their costs, and their effect on the distribution of financial benefits and burdens across income classes. He also assesses how they implement the theory of managed competition. The paper concludes with the author's views about some of the key design decisions that must be made in devising a coverage expansion plan of this sort.