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Biosketch:
Len Nichols, Ph.D., vice president, is a health policy expert who has
written and published extensively on a variety of topics, including insurance
market regulation, the effect of tax policy on health insurance purchase
decisions and private insurance options for Medicare. He previously served
as principal research associate at the Urban Institute, senior advisor
for health policy at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and chair
of the economics department at Wellesley College.
Abstract:
Critics of employer-sponsored
health insurance abound. The Left argues it can not survive and should
be replaced by single-payer, the Right argues but for the tax subsidy
it could not survive and advocates ending both. The evidence, in the nation
and in California (where an employer mandate was recently and narrowly
repealed by voters), reveals a system not in crisis, but under income-related
stress. An increasing fraction of our workforce cannot afford health insurance
as we know it. How policy addresses this dynamic will determine whether
the employer-based system remains vibrant or shrinks to serve higher income
workers only.
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