Employment-Based Health Insurance

Employment-based health insurance provides health care for 160 million Americans.  But the number of employers sponsoring coverage and the proportion of employees taking benefits when they are offered are both dropping.  Employment-based insurance has been charged with causing “job-lock,” the unwillingness of workers to change jobs even when other jobs beckon.  Yet agreement on an alternative to provide health insurance to workers and their families seems no nearer today than it has for generations.

On Friday, June 16, the Brookings Institution and the New America Foundation will host the first forum in a series to examine whether employment-based health insurance should and will survive.  Andrew Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union, will open the session with a presentation on the health policy positions of the nation’s largest independent union.  Brookings Senior Fellow Henry Aaron will moderate.  The second panel will explore the employer perspective with presentations by Costco Senior Vice President John Matthews and National Small Business Association President Todd McCracken and will be moderated by Len Nichols, Director of the Health Policy Program  at the New America Foundation.  Aaron and Nichols will conclude the event with remarks from a health economist perspective.

A question and answer session with the audience will follow each panel.

See map: Google Maps

Participants

• Andrew Stern
  President, Service Employees International Union
• John Matthews
  Senior Vice President, Costco
• Todd McCracken
  President, National Small Business Association
• Len Nichols
  Health Policy Program Director, New America Foundation
• Henry Aaron
  Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution