Health Care Costs
Expanding health care coverage to low-income people using public health insurance programs likely would be less expensive than providing tax credits to buy private health insurance coverage, according to a study in Health Affairs.
On average, researchers projected that out-of-pocket costs for a family of four enrolled in Medicaid would be less than $500 per year, compared with annual costs of about $3,200 with private coverage.
Noting that many states' Medicaid programs and versions of the State Children's Health Insurance Program rely on private insurers to provide health benefits, the authors conclude that building coverage expansion efforts on Medicaid and SCHIP would have lower costs to individuals as well as governments, regardless of whether the expansion was focused at the state or national level (Ku/Broaddus, Health Affairs, 6/24).