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Social Security: Just the Facts Video
Have you seen our video, “Social Security: Just the Facts?” Click here to learn more and find additional resources for exploring each topic in more depth.
Discuss: Share in our Policy Ideas
Simplifying Administration of Health Insurance
The high administrative costs of the U.S. health insurance system have been a focus of discussion for decades. Simplifying Administration of Health Insurance finds ways to define and classify administrative costs, both of insurers and of other participants in the system, and summarizes the fragmentary estimates of how large these costs are. It discusses current efforts to reduce administrative costs, many of which have focused on standardizing and simplifying transactions among insurers, providers, and employers. Finally, it considers how various reform proposals, whether or not directly targeted at administrative costs, might reduce—or add to—the complexity of the current system.
Restructuring Health Insurance Markets
Restructuring Health Insurance Markets examines six structural changes that could expand health insurance coverage, with special focus on the administrative issues: changes in rating rules, high risk pools, standard benefit plans, reinsurance, Section 125 plans, and insurance exchanges. It considers what benefits these changes might produce, how they can be most effectively structured, and how they can be implemented. From an administrative standpoint, it is critical that any set of policies be considered as a whole, with careful attention to their interactions, both to enhance their chances for success and to avoid unnecessary administrative burdens and duplication.
Business and Retirement Income – What Role in the Future?
I have been very pleased to spend the last few days in Washington, DC and to participate in several meetings about retirement security. On Wednesday, June 17, I joined a group at the National Academy of Social Insurance at “The Quest for Adequate Retirement Income” a symposium focusing on current issues in the retirement system.
On Thursday [July 18th], I had the opportunity to meet with a number of plan sponsors who were discussing challenges in the retirement income system from their perspective. These large organizations were interested in providing retirement security to their employees, and frustrated at what often seems to be a stream of endless roadblocks.
Administering Health Insurance Mandates
Mandates form an integral part of many proposals to expand health insurance coverage. Often, however, too little attention is paid to how and whether they can be administered.
Read More…Paying a Fair Share for Health Coverage and Care
Expanding health coverage will involve changes in the premiums and taxes people pay for health insurance and the amounts they pay out-of-pocket for specific health care services. Payment arrangements must generate sufficient revenue, promote efficiency in health care delivery, assure access to care for people who have low income or are in poor health, and minimize administrative costs and burden. Paying a Fair Share for Health Coverage and Care evaluates alternative approaches—including social insurance programs, means-tested premium assistance, and income-related cost sharing—according to these criteria.
