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![[Grace-Marie Arnett introduces the Health Policy Consensus Group]](HPCG_060299_files/congroup.jpe)
Grace-Marie Arnett introduces the Health
Policy Consensus Group at the National Press Club, June 2,
1999.
Consensus Group Endorses Tax Credits
for the Uninsured
Leading health care economists
and policy analysts, including researchers at the major market-oriented
think tanks, today released a joint statement in which they recommended
directing credits to individuals and families to help them obtain
private health insurance.
In a news conference today at the
National Press Club, 18 policy experts, known as the Health Policy
Consensus Group, unveiled an unusual joint statement called, "A Vision
for Consumer-Driven Health Care Reform."
The group
recommends that the top priority for Congress and the White House on
health care reform should be addressing the rising number of uninsured.
The policy community today stepped forward to say they support the idea
of tax credits for the uninsured because it represents sound policy. At
the same time, the idea is gaining support on both sides of the aisle in
Congress.
For decades, policy makers at all levels of
government have been searching for ways to help Americans gain greater
access to affordable health care. As costs and the number of uninsured
continue to rise, a different approach clearly is
needed.
The contributors offer a fresh idea: Health care
costs can be contained, quality enhanced, and access to care greatly
expanded by creating a new and more equitable set of incentives so
individuals can choose and own their own health insurance and make their
own health care arrangements in an open and competitive
marketplace.
Providing credits or other fixed incentives to
individuals and families would mean "millions of Americans not eligible
for the current tax subsidy would receive help in purchasing health
insurance," their statement said.
The authors believe that
this approach would finally create a win-win scenario for individuals
and families so that high-quality, innovative health care would be
accessible and affordable for all Americans.
The Health Policy
Consensus Group has been working together to provide policy
advice since 1993. Their incentive-based ideas are intended to
strengthen and rationalize the marketplace to provide greater access to
more affordable health care and to preserve the private health care
system.
Quotes from individual members of the Consensus
Group and a Roster follow.
Mark Pauly, Ph.D., The Wharton
School, University of Pennsylvania
"There is virtually universal
agreement that the reason why more people are becoming uninsured is
because the cost of insurance is high relative to their resources. The
strategy we propose - retargeting tax subsidies to provide financial
help to those most in need - is required by logic as well as by concern
for others."
Robert Moffit, Ph.D., The Heritage
Foundation
"America does not enjoy a normal market in health
care. You cannot have a normally functioning market where the consumer
of a service and the customer of a service are two different
personalities, and where consumer choice of plans, benefits, and
physicians is subordinated to third party payment arrangements over
which the consumer has virtually no control."
Robert B.
Helms, Ph.D., American Enterprise Institute
"Economists have been
writing about the distorting effects of the tax treatment of health
insurance for almost 30 years. The effects of tax policy have been both
unintended and gradual, but the result has been the development of
inefficient medical and health insurance markets. The markets are
inefficient because they encourage excessive use of medical resources
and increase the cost for all consumers, including those without health
insurance and those we try to help through government
programs."
Greg Scandlen, Cato Institute
"It is
critically important that health care consumers be able to control their
own resources. That means choosing and owning their own health insurance
plan, not just accepting whatever the employer happens to provide. Only
when the decision-maker is the worker, not the employer, will health
plans begin to pay attention to the needs and preferences of
consumers."
John Hoff, Health Care Attorney
"It would
seem incontrovertible that taxpayer-financed subsidies for the purchase
of insurance should go to families who need assistance. Families should
be allowed to choose and own their health insurance. The present system
fails on both counts. The consensus approach would meet both objectives,
and preserve a private health care system from encroaching government
control."
David Kendall, Progressive Policy
Institute
"Support for a health insurance tax credit spans the
ideological spectrum. Congress should seize upon this rare moment of
consensus on health policy."
Steve Entin, Institute for
Research on the Economics of Taxation
"Federal meddling with the
health care market has changed us from involved consumers to passive
recipients of health care. It is time to put the free market back to
work, with the consumer free to select and pay for the kind of care he
or she wants, and with providers free to offer the full range of
services that they can provide."
Naomi Lopez, Pacific Research
Institute
"With the intellectual muscle of the Health Policy
Consensus Group behind them, the time is ripe for federal lawmakers to
embrace consumer-driven health-care reform. Allowing for the greatest
flexibility in helping Americans best meet their own health-care needs
would be a good place to start."
John Goodman, Ph.D., National
Center for Policy Analysis
"Spending on health care for the
uninsured already amounts to more than $1,000 for every uninsured
person. Tax equity would not increase government spending. Rather, it
would create a more rational allocation of existing
spending."
Bradley Belt, Center for Strategic and
International Studies
"Addressing the tax treatment of health
insurance is important, not only to gain greater control over health
spending at the federal level, but also to create a true market for
health care at the individual level."
Grace-Marie Arnett,
Galen Institute
"The market-based health policy community
believes that the rising number of uninsured should be Job One for this
Congress in addressing health care reform. The strength and vitality of
the competitive marketplace should be tapped to provide solutions where
top-down, government-directed programs have failed. Providing tax
credits to the uninsured is the place to
start."
