Policy Update

For states considering employer health mandates, lessons can be learned from California's SB 2, which the Legislature approved in 2003 and voters repealed in 2004, a study in California Economic Policy says.

The study suggests that future mandates include smaller contributions from employers to worker health plans covering families and that the baseline health plan employers must offer should be low-cost. In addition, the paper suggests that states and policy makers considering mandates should think about how such a law might affect enrollment in public health insurance programs and how decreased enrollment might lower the federal health funds a state receives.

This week's Health Policy Research Update also includes studies on:

• The effect of consumer-directed health plans on individuals with poor health or low incomes; and
  
  
• The benefits and drawbacks of privatizing public health services.