Health Policy Center, independent research for better health policy: The Urban Institute

Featured Research

Cross-State Risk Pooling Under Health Care Reform: An Analytic Review of the Provisions in the House and Senate Bills
Linda J. Blumberg and Karen Pollitz

The new health reform law contains explicit provisions allowing for health care risk to be pooled across state lines.  In this paper, the authors explore the potential implications of such pooling provisions within the context of the House and Senate precursors to the new law, and describe the challenges faced in implementation of the specific strategies. Read more

Medicaid Coverage and Spending in Health Reform: National and State-by-State Results for Adults at or Below 133% Poverty
John Holahan and Irene Headen

In this report, the authors show that the federal government will pay the overwhelming majority of the costs associated with the expansion of Medicaid under the new health reform law, and the number of uninsured will drop markedly across the country.  States with large uninsured populations today are expected to see the biggest increases in Medicaid coverage.  Nationally, by 2019, Medicaid enrollment will climb by 15.9 million more people due to the new law; the uninsured will fall by more than 11 million.  Between 92 and 95% of the new costs will be paid by the federal government from 2014 to 2019, with the remainder paid by states. Read more

The Effects of Large Premium Increases on Individuals, Families, and Small Businesses
Matthew Buettgens, Bowen Garrett and John Holahan

In this report, the authors examine the effects of premium increases significantly higher than the rate of health care cost growth on coverage, costs and the decisions by small firms to offer ESI.  They find, for example, that such increases would adversely affect low- to middle-income families and older, nonelderly persons most, though there would be significant loss of coverage even among those with higher incomes. Read more