Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Kansas highlighted in Wall Street Journal piece on "crowding out"
["The Middle Class Burden on Public Health Insurance," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 21 February 2005.]
The concern that public insurance crowds out private coverage has been around some time, but with proposals in Kansas to expand HealthWave and Medicaid, the data is increasingly relevant:
More middle-income families are relying on government programs for health insurance, even when their own private employers provide coverage, says the Wall Street Journal.
Families that can not afford private insurance but are above the income limit to quality for Medicaid are turning to state programs such as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to insure their children. However, observers say the growing demand on the program is unsustainable:
* The Employee Benefit Research Institute notes that private coverage declined from 74.4 percent in 2000 to 71.5 percent in 2003.
* Since 2000, nationwide enrollment of children in SCHIP programs has increased by 76 percent to about 5.8 million.
* In Kansas, 51 percent of the children in the state’s SCHIP program have at least one parent who is eligible for private coverage.
Programs such as SCHIP require enrollees to pay premiums and co-pays, however, the costs are much lower; one might pay $60 per month to cover two children as opposed to paying a few hundred dollars per month through a private insurer.
However, since state programs underpay providers, private premiums will rise to cover the shortfall as more people enter the public insurance market.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Additional Medicaid Spending is Irresponsible," The Flint Hills Center, 22 July 2004.]
["The Middle Class Burden on Public Health Insurance," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 21 February 2005.]
The concern that public insurance crowds out private coverage has been around some time, but with proposals in Kansas to expand HealthWave and Medicaid, the data is increasingly relevant:
More middle-income families are relying on government programs for health insurance, even when their own private employers provide coverage, says the Wall Street Journal.
Families that can not afford private insurance but are above the income limit to quality for Medicaid are turning to state programs such as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to insure their children. However, observers say the growing demand on the program is unsustainable:
* The Employee Benefit Research Institute notes that private coverage declined from 74.4 percent in 2000 to 71.5 percent in 2003.
* Since 2000, nationwide enrollment of children in SCHIP programs has increased by 76 percent to about 5.8 million.
* In Kansas, 51 percent of the children in the state’s SCHIP program have at least one parent who is eligible for private coverage.
Programs such as SCHIP require enrollees to pay premiums and co-pays, however, the costs are much lower; one might pay $60 per month to cover two children as opposed to paying a few hundred dollars per month through a private insurer.
However, since state programs underpay providers, private premiums will rise to cover the shortfall as more people enter the public insurance market.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Additional Medicaid Spending is Irresponsible," The Flint Hills Center, 22 July 2004.]
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