Variations in Health Insurance Coverage: Benefits vs. Premiums

Renewed national interest in market forces to promote more efficient and cost-conscious behavior by patients and providers increasingly focuses on the structure of private health insurance benefits. Two features of procompetitive legislative proposals are considered: a ceiling on tax-free employer insurance premiums and offering greater choice of insurance plans. The interests of efficiency and equity invoke different kinds of risks and transfers; no single institutional approach is likely to yield the promised benefits.

Author(s): Gail R. Wilensky; Pamela J. Farley; Amy K. Taylor

Download the Article

Read on JSTOR

Volume 62, Issue 1 (pages 53–81)
Published in 1984