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The Current State of Employment-Based Health Coverage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Sherry A. Glied  and
Phyllis C. Borzi
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Extract

American policymakers and health policy analysts have a love-hate relationship with job-based health insurance. The policy press routinely runs articles about the demise of the current system of voluntary employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. Conservatives argue that it ought to be replaced with individually-purchased insurance, such as tax-favored spending accounts (see Mark Pauly’s article this issue). Liberals assert that government insurance ought to supplant it.

Meanwhile, as the debate rages on about the future of employer coverage, states and the federal government pass legislation buttressing and building on the existing employment-based system. Most recently, California has passed an employer mandate requiring employers to cover their workers (and many other states have contemplated similar legislation) and Maine has adopted a universal coverage initiative that includes a voluntary small employer insurance program offered through a state agency (Dirigo Health Care).

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2004 , pp. 404 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

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