House Subcommittee Considers Health Subsidy Bill

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, a think tank, testified at a recent Health Subcommittee hearing that the certificates would be too skimpy to help most recipients buy health insurance on their own.

The provision making certificates available to workers with access to employer-sponsored coverage might encourage employers to cut their share of spending on health benefits, Greenstein said, according to a written version of his remarks.

But Dr. Donald Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America, Washington, said boosting risk pool funding and issuing certificates would be a good way to help people get health coverage without disrupting the private health insurance market.

“If we are ever to make significant headway towards making health care coverage affordable for all Americans, we must provide a meaningful subsidy to those who do not have the income to buy it on their own,” Young said.

Links to the text of H.R. 2698 and other information about the bill are available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.02698:

Links to the remarks of witnesses who participated in the Health Subcommittee hearing are posted at http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/07172003hearing1015/hearing.htm