October 11, 2000
Because the Patients’ Bill of Rights will raise costs and reduce access to health insurance, employers and employees should have the ability to opt out of the provisions of the bill if they so desire.
Therefore, if an employer gives a defined contribution to employees for health coverage, the employer, the employee plan, and the insurer chosen by the employee should be exempt from the liability and the regulatory provisions of the Patients’ Bill of Rights.
Employees would be the owners of their health coverage, which they would choose and purchase either individually or through group plans. The tax treatment of this defined contribution would be the same as under current law.
Grace-Marie Arnett
Galen Institute
Naomi Lopez-Bauman
Pacific Research Institute
Julie Chan
Cato Institute
Stephen J. Entin
Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation
James Frogue
The Heritage Foundation
John Goodman, Ph.D.
National Center for Policy Analysis
Robert Helms, Ph.D.
American Enterprise Institute
John S. Hoff
Health Policy Attorney
Merrill Matthews, Ph.D.
American Conservative Network
Marty McGeein
The McGeein Group
Thomas Miller
Cato Institute
Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
The Heritage Foundation
Greg Scandlen
National Center for Policy Analysis
Elizabeth Wright
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
The Health Policy Consensus Group is a broad-based group of health policy analysts including researchers from major market-oriented public policy research organizations.
For more information, contact Grace-Marie Arnett, Galen Institute, Alexandria, VA, (703) 299-8900. Fax (703) 299-0721. E-mail [email protected].
