Blending Better Ingredients For Health Reform

This paper argues that a desirable health reform plan should accept some features that the Obama and McCain plans have in common, and combine other features from each of the plans. Useful combinations include the presence of both public and private options and a system of credits that are more generous for lower-income households (Obama) and creation of a system of public subsidies that is incentive-neutral across individual and group insurance, curtailment of the current tax subsidy to high levels of coverage for high-income households, and the use of targeted high-risk pools and guaranteed renewability rather than community rating (McCain). [Health Affairs 27, no. 6 (2008): w482-w491 (published online 16 September 2008; 10.1377/hlthaff.27.6.w482)]