Psychiatric News October 15, 2004
Volume 39 Number 20
© 2004 American Psychiatric Association
p. 6
Covering More Uninsured Doable–But Expensive
Kate Mulligan
A health care policy analyst reviews the literature about states'
efforts to expand insurance coverage and concludes that money matters.
There is good news and bad news about states' efforts to expand the number
of people who are insured, Barbara Yondorf, president of a Denver-based health
policy consulting firm, told an audience at the National Academy for State
Health Policy's annual conference.
"The good news is that there are strategies that work," she
said. "The bad news is that they are mostly expensive. Solutions will
not be budget neutral."
Yondorf, who has headed the health and finance sections of the National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), wrote a paper titled "State
Options for Expanding Health Care Access" for that organization in which
she examined published literature about the results of states' efforts to
expand coverage.
Yondorf divided 26 options into three categories: expand private health
insurance coverage, expand government-sponsored coverage programs, and expand
direct care programs.
She cautioned that the research had been conducted prior and up to the
middle of 2003, so results did not reflect the impact of worsening state
budget problems.
Expansion of eligibility for Medicaid and the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) are the "most effective" strategies for
increasing coverage, Yondorf said. She quoted a statement from Leighton Ku, a
senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "If
enrollment in Medicaid and SCHIP had not grown in 2002, the number of
Americans without health insurance would have been much higher [than 43.6
million]."
Researchers for several studies have found that states can increase
enrollment rates in Medicaid and SCHIP by intensifying outreach efforts and
simplifying enrollment procedures.
A SCHIP program in which the federal government provided premium assistance
to employers who, in turn, insured low-income children of their employees has
not been "particularly effective" because of its administrative
complexity and cost.
Enrollment in SCHIP declined in the second half of 2003 for the first time
since the program was established in 1997 (Psychiatric News, September
3).
An effort to encourage "Ticket to Work" participants to enroll
in employer-sponsored health insurance and use Medicaid as a supplement has
not been successful because the participants often work fewer hours than
necessary to qualify for coverage. Ticket to Work waives some Medicaid
income-eligibility requirements to encourage beneficiaries to obtain
employment.
The establishment by a state of a high-risk pool to cover otherwise
uninsurable individuals has had a "small positive effect" on
coverage rates. Enrollment in high-risk pools increased 20 percent between
2001 and 2002. In June 2002, however, those pools covered only 153,351
individuals, a figure that represents about .4 percent of the 41 million
Americans without insurance.
Pennsylvania, Washington, and Massachusetts have set up state-funded
programs targeted to low-income individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid.
In Washington, for example, the state offers premium subsidies for coverage
from private insurance plans to people with incomes at 200 percent or less of
the federal poverty level.
Yondorf told the audience, "There were some surprising results. Some
`obvious' strategies don't work."
Among them are the use of group purchasing mechanisms by small employers. A
study of small-group purchasing alliances in California, Connecticut, and
Florida found they "neither reduced small employer premiums nor
increased the number of small businesses offering health insurance to their
employees."
There is also no evidence that coverage is increased by the availability of
state tax credits to small employers to offset their costs of providing
insurance.
Yondorf speculated that the size of the credit generally does not provide a
sufficient incentive to employers.
She offered concluding observations to the audience. "Convenience
matters. It is one reason Medicaid expansion has been so successful. Build on
existing programs and watch administrative costs."
And, finally, "Don't let ideology get in the way of
evidence."
Copies of "State Options for Expanding Health Care
Access" can be purchased for $30 at
<http://ncsl.org/public/catalog/pubs.cfm?prodid=0166760006>.
Related Article:
-
Funding Child, Elderly Health Care Gets Widespread Support
- Mark Moran
Psychiatr News 2004 39: 16.
[Full Text]
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