Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Promise of Health Insurance Reform

The central role that employers phi v in financing health care is a distinctive feature of the U.S. health care system, and the provision of health insurance through the workplace has important implications well beyond its role as a source of health care financing. In this paper, the consider the "goodness of fit" of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in the current economic and health insurance environs rents and in light of prospects for a vigorous national debate over the shape of health care reform. The main issue that tire explore is whether ESI can have a viable role in health system reform efforts or whether such coverage will need to he significantly modified or even abandoned as reform seeks to address important issues in the efficient provision and equitable distribution of health insurance coverage.