Publications on Uninsured/Uncompensated Care

Only 37 percent of adults in low-income working families had employer-sponsored health insurance and 42 percent had no coverage. Health care costs are also rapidly rising out of reach for even middle-income Americans. In this essay, Perry and Blumberg propose comprehensive reform that ensures coverage for everyone at every income level, while still encouraging work. Their proposals include state purchasing pools, individual mandates, and strategies for reducing health care costs.

Only 37 percent of adults in low-income working families had employer-sponsored health insurance and 42 percent had no coverage. Health care costs are also rapidly rising out of reach for even middle-income Americans. In this summary, Perry and Blumberg propose comprehensive reform that ensures coverage for everyone at every income level, while still encouraging work. Their proposals include state purchasing pools, individual mandates and strategies for reducing health care costs.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 2, "Making Work Pay II: Comprehensive Health Insurance for Low-Income Working Families," by Cynthia D. Perry and Linda J. Blumberg.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 2, "Making Work Pay II: Comprehensive Health Insurance for Low-Income Working Families," by Cynthia D. Perry and Linda J. Blumberg.

Since 2001, more than half the states have changed their Medicaid programs, through either Medicaid waivers or provisions included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. These changes are in benefit flexibility, cost sharing, enrollment expansions and caps, privatization, and structure of program financing. With a few important exceptions, the changes have been fairly circumscribed. However, states may exercise this new flexibility if, for example, national health care reforms do not occur or an economic downturn creates state fiscal pressures. If that happens, new policies could lead to profound changes in Medicaid and could be carried out relatively easily.