New America Foundation Releases a Paper on Key Health Reform Component
The New America Foundation today released "Coverage Without Gaps: Implementing Seamless Health Insurance Coverage," a policy report on its model of seamless health insurance that would create a health insurance system where, once coverage is affordable and accessible, Californians would be required to purchase it. Seamless coverage would make universal health coverage a reality in California.
A requirement to purchase insurance is an active part of the ongoing health care reform debate in California. It is a key feature of Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal, and it will likely be a key issue considered in the California Legislature’s special health care session. Based on personal plus shared responsibility, seamless coverage will ensure that no families or individuals fall through the cracks by reforming the insurance market, developing automatic insurance enrollment, and sharing the financial risk.
"Seamless coverage is both a requirement and a promise that no Californian will ever lack access to the health care they need and deserve," said Peter Harbage, senior policy associate with the Foundation. "Shared responsibility means that the individual must take action to enroll in health insurance while the government and employers must help make insurance affordable and automatic."
In “Coverage Without Gaps: Implementing Seamless Health Coverage in California,” the New America Foundation proposes a set of principles and steps to achieve universal coverage:
- Access and Affordability. As polls show, Californians want affordable and comprehensive health insurance, which can be achieved with a reasonable combination of subsidies, automatic enrollment and insurance market reforms. In a reformed insurance system that is open and affordable, most people will choose to enroll. The plan also calls for the state to create a public pool open to all those without access to employer insurance.
- Review and Monitor Enrollment. The state must review health insurance enrollment consistently and in a timely manner so that individuals without insurance can be given the support they needed to find and keep insurance.
- Fair Penalties. The state must enforce reasonable penalties against the few who can afford to pay their fair share and simply refuse to do so.
"Requiring individuals to take responsibility for their own health coverage, with appropriate support, is the only way to achieve universal coverage," said Len Nichols, director of the New America Foundation Health Policy Program.
The New America Foundation model of seamless health insurance coverage is based on the idea, shared by many experts, that universal coverage can only be achieved through an individual mandate. New America's paper "Growing Support for Shared and Personal Responsibility in Health Care,” provides support for this view. To help achieve seamless coverage, New America analyzed the lessons and history of auto insurance requirements around the country, and detailed those in a paper "What Your Car Can Teach You About Health Reform.” For more information on Seamless Heath Insurance Coverage, please click on the following link: Seamless Health Insurance Coverage.
Related Programs: New America in California, Health Policy Program
Topics: Health Policy
