College: Proposed tax credit plans for uninsured fall short

At a Capitol Hill briefing in April, College leaders praised several new congressional proposals for health insurance tax credits as good starting points for addressing the needs of the uninsured, but said they fell short in several areas.

Whitney Addington, FACP, then the College's President-elect, said that tax credit plans must:

contribute enough in tax credits to make affordable coverage available to low-income, uninsured individuals;
not encourage individuals to drop existing coverage in order to gain tax credits; and
have a clearly defined administrative structure to implement the tax credits.

Dr. Addington noted that an ACP-ASIM plan, which was introduced in February, addresses these concerns. The College plan calls for a tax credit of $2,800 for individuals living at 100% of the poverty level and $2,400 for individuals at 150% of the poverty level, an amount that would buy a health insurance policy equivalent to a standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan.

The ACP-ASIM plan also calls for expanding Medicaid, increasing funding for Medicaid outreach efforts and providing insurance subsidies to temporarily unemployed and uninsured workers (which would be phased out at 250% of the poverty level).

For more information on the College's access proposal, see "Why tax credits are the next step in helping the nation's uninsured."