Cost Impact Analysis of the “Health Care For America” Proposal (Economic Policy Institute)
The Lewin Group developed detailed analyses of the Health Care for America Proposal. Under the proposal, employers would be required to provide coverage or pay a payroll tax to have their workers covered under a newly created national health insurance pool called Health Care for America (HCA). Modeled on Medicare, Health Care for America would offer a single Medicare-like fee-for-service option (public HCA plan) and a selection of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) or other private managed care plans (private HCA plans).
In our report, we estimated the impact on costs and coverage for each major stakeholder. This included a detailed analysis of changes in spending for the federal government and state and local governments. These included the cost of subsidies, offsets to existing government safety-net programs, and changes in tax revenues resulting from these proposals. Estimates were provided assuming full implementation in 2007, and included estimates of health spending over a ten-year period, including a phase-in of coverage under the proposal.
For more than 20 years, The Lewin Group has helped our clients develop options for expanding health insurance coverage and reforming health care financing and delivery systems.
We help our clients develop options for expanding health care coverage that vary from incremental approaches through comprehensive health reform and include Medicaid eligibility expansions, tax credits for private insurance, insurance market reforms, employer contribution requirements, universal coverage through private health insurance, and single-payer programs. Using The Lewin Group Health Benefits Simulation Model (HBSM), a micro-simulation model of the U.S. health care system that is built upon a representative sample of households from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) data, we estimate the changes in coverage sources under these proposals as well as the cost impacts of these options on key stakeholder groups
We work with our clients to specify, analyze, and refine their health care reform proposals to meet their unique coverage expansion and budget objectives. Using data-driven research, we model the effect of changes in the health care delivery system on costs for governments, employers, and households and simulate the effect of system reforms on long-term cost growth.
Services
We work with state and federal government agencies, national associations, foundations, and others to develop and refine their health care reform policies and analyze the cost and coverage impact of their health care reform policies.
Policy Development
- Design, develop, and analyze health care reform proposals
- Develop health reform options
- Help refine health care reform plans to meet coverage and budget objectives
Cost Containment Initiatives
- Analyze initiatives to manage chronic care
- Examine the impacts of consumer-directed initiatives to reduce utilization
- Evaluate effects of incentives to influence provider behavior
- Assess regulatory policy
Cost and Coverage Analysis
- Estimate cost and coverage impacts of health care reform plans
- Analyze the number of people with access to insurance coverage and the number of individuals who are uninsured
- Determine the cost of insurance coverage to individuals
- Determine the cost of insurance coverage to various stakeholder groups