PUBLICATIONS BY Nina Owcharenko
Research
Commentary
Media Appearances
2008 Research
May 20, 2008
SCHIP: The Bush Administration's Effort to Preserve Children's Private Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1933)
In August of 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid released a directive on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The directive keeps the program focused on its core population—low-income uninsured children—and pays particular attention to the impact that SCHIP expansions have on existing private coverage.
May 02, 2008
The Medicaid Regulations: Stopping the Abuse of Taxpayers' Dollars
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1911)
Congress may soon undermine efforts to instill integrity into the Medicaid program by weakening important safeguards against its abuse. These safeguards are embodied in seven rules proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). These rules would establish clear guidance for states seeking federal matching payments. However, the Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act (H.R. 5613) would extend a moratorium on these rules.
March 13, 2008
Lawmakers Should Approach Wyden-Bennett Health Bill with Caution
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1849)
Although it proposes needed tax reforms, S. 334 would also replace the current health system with one that is heavily regulated by the federal government.
March 06, 2008
Congress Should Support HHS Efforts to Curtail Medicaid Mismanagement
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1837)
Proposed regulations aim to prevent states from exploiting Medicaid's financing structure.
February 12, 2008
The President's Proposals for Medicaid and SCHIP: One Step Forward, One Step Back
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1806)
Congress should embrace the President's proposals for Medicaid but reject the increase in SCHIP spending.
2007 Research
December 11, 2007
SCHIP: Congress Must Stop Another State Bailout
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1732)
Lawmakers must avert a taxpayer bailout of states that have mismanaged their SCHIP programs.
December 03, 2007
The SCHIP Negotiations: A Backdoor Approach to Expanding Medicaid to the Middle Class?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1716)
Congress must prevent the expansion of welfare into the middle class by capping eligibility for both SCHIP and Medicaid.
December 03, 2007
The SCHIP Bill: Why the Premium Assistance Provisions Won’t Work
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1717)
Congress should create a premium assistance program that empowers parents to make decisions for their children with regard to health care coverage.
November 07, 2007
No Way Out: The Fruitless SCHIP Negotiations
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1698)
Efforts to reach a compromise on SCHIP are unlikely to resolve the fundamental problems with the House bill.
October 29, 2007
The Revised SCHIP Bill: Still Bad Health Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1680)
The new version does not correct the deficiencies of the original.
October 01, 2007
SCHIP Plus a Tax Credit: A Compromise Health Insurance Plan for Kids
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1652)
Congress should fashion a bipartisan compromise that aims to expand coverage for the uninsured while preserving coverage for families that already have it.
September 24, 2007
SCHIP: Crafting a Better Compromise to Cover Kids
By Nina Owcharenko and Stuart Butler
(WebMemo #1635)
House and Senate leaders should negotiate a more balanced compromise that aims to expand access to private health coverage for uninsured children.
August 27, 2007
The Administration's SCHIP Regulations: A Sound Prescription
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1591)
The Bush Administration moves to restore SCHIP's focus on low-income children.
July 23, 2007
Redesigning SCHIP to Strengthen Private Health Insurance for Working Families
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1564)
A proposal from the Senate Finance Committee to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would displace private health care coverage. In legislation to reauthorize SCHIP, Congress should include tax reform and other measures that address the fundamental problems in the health care system.
June 27, 2007
The State Children's Health Insurance Program: High Stakes for American Families
By Connie Marshner and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1528)
Congress must strengthen private sector options in SCHIP to reduce dependency on government, restore parental responsibility, and protect taxpayers.
May 24, 2007
Children's Health: SCHIP Should Not Become a Welfare Entitlement
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1473)
To protect taxpayers and preserve private sector aspects of the program, Congress must prevent the State Children's Health Insurance Program from morphing into an extension of Medicaid.
May 22, 2007
Reforming SCHIP: Using Premium Assistance to Expand Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1466)
Rather than displacing private coverage with a government-run plan, Congress should empower families to make their own health care decisions and set the stage for future health care reforms.
May 21, 2007
The Future of SCHIP: Family Freedom or Government Control?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1464)
Expanding SCHIP eligibility would be a big mistake, chipping away at private coverage and placing a great burden on taxpayers.
May 02, 2007
Fixing SCHIP and Expanding Children's Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #2029)
Instead of moving the State Children’s Health Insurance Program closer to becoming an entitlement, increasing the fiscal burden on the states and taxpayers and crowding out existing private coverage for working families, policymakers should establish a responsible system of program financing, set rational eligibility rules, broaden flexibility in health benefit design, and promote private coverage alternatives.
March 05, 2007
Health Insurance for Uninsured Children: Doing Health Care Right
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #997)
The lack of health insurance among children is important, as it is for all uninsured. Policy for children should be family-oriented, and one of the best ways to tackle reform is to increase coverage options and personal control, both to address the needs of children and to improve the health of the system for all Americans.
March 05, 2007
The Truth About SCHIP Shortfalls
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1381)
Congress should resist rewarding states that have ignored SCHIP's intent and exceeded its scope.
February 07, 2007
The President's Budget: Improving Medicaid and SCHIP
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1348)
The President’s budget for Medicaid and SCHIP provides policymakers with a rational and positive roadmap for the future for these programs.
February 06, 2007
How Bush's Health Care Tax Plan Will Raise Wages
By James Sherk and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1345)
By limiting the tax relief for company-sponsored health coverage, the President’s health plan would encourage workers and their employers to review the structure of compensation.
January 30, 2007
Addressing Adverse Selection Concerns Under the President's Health Care Proposal
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1332)
To the extent that adverse selection becomes a problem, there are tools that could be used to address it within the context of the President's plan.
January 22, 2007
Making Health Care Affordable: Bush's Bold Health Tax Reform Plan
By Stuart M. Butler and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1316)
A sound basis for a serious discussion on how the tax treatment of health care should be reformed, consistent with good tax policy.
January 22, 2007
The Schwarzenegger Health Plan: A Great Leap Forward for Bigger Government
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1317)
The Governor's proposed health plan is a mélange of bad health policy, unwise tax increases, and missed opportunities.
2006 Research
December 05, 2006
Keeping the State Children's Health Care Program Focused on Federal Objectives
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #980)
During the upcoming SCHIP reauthorization debate, federal lawmakers have the responsibility to evaluate both the effectiveness of the program's funding and the soundness of the policies that affect its implementation. SCHIP should be a program that helps to mainstream children in working families into private health care coverage, not one that supplants private coverage.
August 30, 2006
The Tax Equity and Affordability Act: A Solution for the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1963)
Congress should provide individuals with the ability to control their own health care decisions. The Tax Equity and Affordability Act, by giving individuals who do not fit into the current health care system an alternative way to secure private health care coverage, embodies sound public policy and is based on free-market principles that promote fairness, choice, and personal ownership.
August 07, 2006
The Baldwin–Price Health Bill: Bipartisan Encouragement for State Action on the Uninsured
By Stuart Butler, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1190)
A new way to break free of the deadlock in health care reform.
July 18, 2006
The Massachusetts Health Plan: Lessons for the States
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1953)
Several features of the Massachusetts health plan could empower individuals to buy and own their own health insurance policies and take these policies with them from job to job, but officials in other states should shun the imposition of employer mandates and avoid public program expansions while making modifications or improvements to other significant components of the Massachusetts plan.
June 19, 2006
A Health Policy Agenda for the House of Representatives
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1133)
Last month, the United States Senate scheduled a "Health Week" to consider modest changes to the health care system. It failed to pass anything.
June 14, 2006
Getting Health Savings Accounts Right
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1127)
The growing success of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is a policy victory, but Congress should be cautious not to overstep the role of the government in the health insurance marketplace. Policymakers eager to build on the success of HSAs should focus on improving the management and administration of these arrangements, but resist tempting efforts to manipulate the market in favor of them. Congress should retain a level playing field for free market competition in health insurance, including HSAs.
May 11, 2006
Building on the President's Health Care Agenda
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1934)
The President's health care agenda would provide tax equity, promote portability, improve health savings accounts, and expand coverage options. Congress should build on these elements and enact policy initiatives that reflect a health care system based on personal choice and free-market competition in which individuals can choose the health plan and design that best suits their needs and preferences.
May 05, 2006
Competition and Federalism: The Right Remedy for Excessive Health Insurance Regulation
By Nina Owcharenko, Edmund Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1060)
Open competition in health care markets would benefit consumers.
April 28, 2006
A Serious Senate Agenda for
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1052)
The Senate should consider policies that promote personal control over health care dollars, expand consumer choice and competition, and reduce health care regulations
April 20, 2006
Understanding Key Parts of the Massachusetts Health Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1045)
Clear explanation answers many criticisms of the Massachusetts plan.
March 17, 2006
Proceed with Caution: The Unintended Consequences of Expanding VA Access
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1018)
Expanding VA medical care is not the best way to help veterans.
January 31, 2006
State of the Union 2006: The Health Care Initiatives
By Robert E. Moffit and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #976)
The President wants to level the playing field for individuals buying health coverage. That's a good idea.
2005 Research
November 18, 2005
Florida and South Carolina: Two Serious Efforts to Improve Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #920)
Bold action from two states to bring the principles of choice, personal control, and competition into Medicaid.
November 08, 2005
Health Care Tax Credits: Designing an Alternative to Employer-Based Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1895)
Individual health care tax credits, in combination with a robust market for insurance products, would offer individuals the opportunity to secure private health care coverage of their own, moving the system closer to a consumer-oriented model that is fairer and more transparent and that empowers individuals to make health care decisions for themselves and their families.
October 27, 2005
Baby Steps: Congressional Action on Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #898)
Some modest savings but fundamental reform is needed to save Medicaid.
September 26, 2005
Katrina's Victims Deserve Better than Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #862)
Instead, Congress should help survivors maintain or obtain private health care coverage.
July 22, 2005
A Good Start: The House Health Care Reform Bills
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #803)
Three positive steps and one puzzling omission.
June 21, 2005
A Road Map for Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1863)
The best Medicaid policy would mainstream as many individuals and families as possible into private coverage and encourage self-direction for those the Medicaid safety net was intended. When considering changes in the Medicaid program, federal and state policymakers should ensure fiscal control and improve the way that low-income individuals and families receive care.
April 12, 2005
The Top Ten Reasons for Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #718)
Just ten?
April 06, 2005
A Responsible Way to Reconcile the House and Senate Budget Resolutions
By Brian M. Riedl, William W. Beach, Nina Owcharenko, Ben Lieberman, and David C. John
(Backgrounder #1842)
Although the House and Senate budget resolutions do not include deep spending cuts, it is important that lawmakers begin the reform process. The best budget plan would expand pro-growth tax relief and begin to rein in spending in areas such as Medicaid and farm subsidies. Such actions could lay the groundwork for larger reforms next year.
March 30, 2005
Congress Should Get Serious About Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #705)
The President's proposal would lay the foundation for Medicaid reform.
February 14, 2005
Making Association Health Plans a Success
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1824)
Congress can make Association Health Plans even more successful by advancing consumer-oriented mechanisms, such as competition, consumer choice, and a nimble regulatory structure; but policymakers must also ensure that individuals are able to choose, without bias from the tax code, the best source of health care and coverage for themselves and their families.
2004 Research
October 12, 2004
An Examination of the Bush Health Care Agenda
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1804)
President Bush's health care agenda would increase public and private coverage for millions of Americans. The outlined health policy agenda introduces key changes in the conventional financing and delivery of health care. Chief among the proposals are health care tax credits for lower-income individuals and families and new market-based insurance reforms to enable Americans to purchase private health coverage.
October 12, 2004
Executive Summary: An Examination of the Bush Health Care Agenda
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #1804)
President Bush's health care agenda would increase public and private coverage for millions of Americans. The outlined health policy agenda introduces key changes in the conventional financing and delivery of health care. Chief among the proposals are health care tax credits for lower-income individuals and families and new market-based insurance reforms to enable Americans to purchase private health coverage.
October 12, 2004
Details Matter: A Closer Look at Senator Kerry's Health Care Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D, Nina Owcharenko, and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1805)
Senator John Kerry's health care plan would expand coverage but would fall short in transforming health insurance markets and making patients the key decision makers in the system. In effect, it would reinforce the status quo, with (according to one estimate) nine of every 10 dollars spent going to employers, insurance companies, and state governments, not to individuals.
October 12, 2004
Executive Summary: Details Matter: A Closer Look at Senator Kerry's Health Care Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D, Nina Owcharenko, and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Executive Summary #1805)
Senator John Kerry's health care plan would expand coverage but would fall short in transforming health insurance markets and making patients the key decision makers in the system. In effect, it would reinforce the status quo, with (according to one estimate) nine of every 10 dollars spent going to employers, insurance companies, and state governments, not to individuals.
July 20, 2004
Debunking the Myths of Drug Importation
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #542)
The benefits of drug importation may be more myth than reality.
May 12, 2004
Bringing True Competitiveness to Health Care
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #502)
Why AHPs, FSAs, and medical malpractice relief don't do it.
May 04, 2004
More Trade, Less Assistance: Why TAA Should Not Be Expanded
By Sara Fitzgerald, Paul Kersey, and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #495)
Expanding TAA would be expensive and could cost American jobs.
April 16, 2004
Health Savings Accounts: How To Broaden Health Coverage for Working Families
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #481)
HSAs offer a variety of unique benefits, including more choice, greater control, and individual ownership.
January 21, 2004
The State of Health Care
By Robert Moffit, Nina Owcharenko, and Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #397)
In his State of the Union address, President Bush declared, " A government run health care system is the wrong prescription. By keeping costs under control, expanding access, and helping more Americans afford coverage, we will preserve the system of private medicine that makes America's health care system the best in the world."
2003 Research
October 22, 2003
A New Direction for Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #355)
Medicaid is in trouble. Budget shortfalls and the growing number of beneficiaries are forcing many states to reassess their Medicaid programs. Congress and states should begin to look at ways to reform the Medicaid program in order to better service those in need -- whether a low-income family or individuals who are physically or mentally disabled.
June 26, 2003
Missing the Point of Medicare Reform: Why Drug Reimportation Is Bad Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #304)
Some Members of Congress want to establish a policy to guarantee Americans "cheap" prescription drugs by allowing them to import drugs subject to the price controls of Canada and other foreign countries. This is bad health care policy. The problem of prescription drugs for senior citizens is invariably a problem of access. It is not price.
June 26, 2003
An Analysis of the White House Position on Medicare Legislation
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #305)
The White House Office of Communications recently issued a series of "questions and answers" on the Medicare legislation before the House and the Senate. The point of the issuance was to answer the critics of the Medicare legislation by responding to the main criticisms in a question-and-answer format.
June 25, 2003
An Analysis of House Medicare Legislation
By Lanhee J. Chen, Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #302)
This analysis examines the House Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2003 (H.R. 2473). The bill establishes a universal, but voluntary, drug benefit as an entitlement in the Medicare program. The bill also makes changes in traditional Medicare and creates a new competitive system for Medicare that will take effect in 2010.
June 23, 2003
Time to Draw the Line on Medicare
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #300)
The success or failure of the entire Medicare program will rest on whether or not Congress can make real reform the centerpiece of any legislative proposal. The centerpiece should not be the creation of a new entitlement program of unknown cost.
June 12, 2003
Why Congress Should Expand Displaced Trade Workers' Access to Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #290)
A federal health care tax credit, made possible by the 2002 Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, has an unintended consequence: strictly defines what constitutes qualified health care coverage into four categories. Congress should expand options to all coverage plans.
May 28, 2003
Why Maine Rx Is the Wrong Model For Improving Access to Prescription Drugs
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #282)
Health policy makers at all levels should resist accepting this Supreme Court decision as an endorsement of policy and instead re-evaluate the real effects such a government pricing proposal.
April 17, 2003
Giving Rural Seniors a Choice of Health Plans: The FEHBP Model for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #258)
To guarantee the right to choose a better plan, Congress should model Medicare reform after the successful Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
March 14, 2003
How Tax Credits Help Overcome the Obstacles Facing the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #220)
By providing a tax credit, uninsured individuals and families would get the needed financial assistance to help them buy coverage of their choice.
March 14, 2003
Covering the Uninsured: How States
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1637)
Governors and state legislators can make significant headway in reducing the number of America's uninsured, improving access to quality health care, and expanding choice and competition in the state health insurance markets.
March 11, 2003
How the President's Health Care Plan Would Expand Insurance
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1636)
President Bush has put forward a series of policy changes, aimed at improving existing health care accounts, that would enable individuals and families to control decisions regarding their own health care and decide for themselves how best to spend their health care dollars.
February 25, 2003
State Opportunities to Provide Affordable Health
By Nina Owcharenko and Edmund Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1626)
The federal health care tax credit will be equal to 65 percent of the health insurance premiums of these individuals and can be applied only to specific types of coverage that states can play a key role in offering.
2002 Research
December 16, 2002
Em 846: How States Can Expand Private Coverage with HIFA Waive
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #846)
How States Can Expand Private Coverage with HIFA Waive
December 16, 2002
How States Can Expand Private Coverage with HIFA Waivers
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #846)
The Administration's HIFA initiative gives states the flexibility to expand coverage to the uninsured by integrating private coverage with traditional Medicaid and SCHIP. Building on the progress achieved through welfare reform, states can mainstream individuals and families out of poorly performing public health programs and help them secure private coverage.
October 14, 2002
How Congress Can Help Unemployed Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #159)
While Congress may not be able to resolve the entire problem of the uninsured this year, it can make significant progress by giving unemployed workers a health care tax credit to help them get health care coverage they want and can afford.
July 26, 2002
Moving Ahead with the TPA Conference
By Sara J. Fitzgerald and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #133)
Congressional passage of a health care tax credit marks a major change in the federal tax treatment for health insurance. This policy creates a framework to give individuals and families the ability to choose affordable, private health care coverage of their choice.
July 18, 2002
Senate Drug Bills are No Substitute for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #128)
Members of Congress should undertake structural improvements in Medicare that will ensure seniors have access to medical innovation and technology within a market-based framework that ensures competition, choice, and quality.
July 16, 2002
Conferees' Guide to Ensuring Real TPA
By Sara J. Fitzgerald, Nina Owcharenko, and Aaron Schavey
(Backgrounder #1570)
Increased trade with other countries is vital to American families, farmers, and manufacturers. In order to secure the benefits that trade offers, President Bush needs Congress to send him a trade bill that includes a clean version of trade promotion authority.
July 16, 2002
Crafting a Health Care Tax Credit
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #824)
Conferees must allow tax credit recipients to choose the health care plan that best meets their needs, give them full access to all coverage options, including individual policies, and encourage greater state innovation in designing affordable private purchasing options.
April 23, 2002
Why COBRA Should Not Be The Only Option For Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #95)
Congress has yet another opportunity to help the unemployed and prevent displaced workers from joining or remaining in the ranks of the uninsured, but it must do this the right way by reaching out to families who need assistance the most.
April 18, 2002
Why Expanding Medicaid to Cover
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #811)
Rather than expand Medicaid, a broken welfare program that promises more than it can deliver, Congress can directly help the uninsured get quality private coverage by creating a new system of refundable tax credits as the President and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders have proposed.
March 04, 2002
How Trade Legislation Can Cover Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #82)
Congress can give displaced workers direct help, in the form of a tax credit or a premium subsidy, that will keep them from falling into the ranks of the uninsured and will offer them health care security through private health care coverage.
January 31, 2002
The Daschle Stimulus Proposal
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #74)
Congress has the opportunity to give all displaced workers a useful health care credit that will allow them to purchase private coverage of their choice and restore their own health care security during this difficult period in our nation's history.
2001 Research
December 18, 2001
The President's Compromise Plan For Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #69)
President Bush has reached a solid agreement with Senate "moderates" to provide health care assistance to displaced workers as part of the stimulus package. The compromise proposal establishes a tax credit for workers to purchase affordable health care coverage. This tax credit approach offers displaced workers the practical assistance they need to help them secure health care coverage for themselves and their families.
December 10, 2001
Effective Health Care for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #65)
Most temporary displaced workers do not need extensive or expensive health care benefits while transitioning between jobs. Instead, they need quick, easily accessible, and affordable coverage options that meet their immediate medical needs. Establishing a common-sense approach for displaced workers today will achieve the short-term goal of giving displaced workers a "helping hand" while also moving the larger national health care debate in a new direction: patient choice.
November 09, 2001
Congress Should Support Private Health Insurance
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #56)
On health care policy, Members of Congress are once again at a fork in the road. The choice is simple. They can either help millions of displaced workers enroll in private health insurance, or they can enroll them in substandard government-run health care programs.
October 31, 2001
How Congress Can Improve Health Coverage for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #50)
Displaced American workers and their families need quality help. They are not getting it. Congress must quickly improve the flawed legislative proposals to assist displaced workers with health care coverage.
October 18, 2001
Displaced Workers and Health Insurance
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #49)
Displaced workers are looking for health care security during these difficult times. Proponents of patient choice and free markets in health care, instead of blindly deferring to the status quo, can chart a superior course that will improve the access and quality of health care for America's families.
October 02, 2001
Providing Health Care Security for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1483)
Congress can offer meaningful help to the families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and to the workers who lost their jobs as a result of these tragedies to ensure that they maintain health care coverage.
September 21, 2001
How Congress Can Help the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1475)
Instead of building on bureaucratic structures or relying on outmoded welfare programs, Congress can promote personal choice in health plans and benefits by transferring decisionmaking power in the health care system to individuals and families.
September 21, 2001
BG1475es: How Congress Can Help the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #1475)
BG1475es: How Congress Can Help the Uninsured Obtain Health Coverage
2007 Commentary
May 07, 2007
One-size-fits-all government program is a poor solution
By Nina Owcharenko
It's obvious that today's health-care system -- a patchwork arrangement of public and private care dominated by coverage through one's employer -- needs help. It leaves too many people without basic insurance and even more in fear of losing it.
February 08, 2007
We can protect employer-based health plans
By Nina Owcharenko
Most Americans get their health insurance through employer-sponsored plans, even though the system is a bit of a relic in today’s rapidly changing, highly mobile work force.
2006 Commentary
November 30, 2006
The Massachusetts Approach: A New Way To Restructure State Health Insurance Markets And Public Programs
By Ed Haislmaier and Nina Owcharenko
In April 2006, Massachusetts enacted legislation to reorganize both its health insurance markets and a large portion of its health care subsidy system. In this paper we consider how the Massachusetts approach differs from most previous state health reform efforts, while also noting its antecedents. We examine the policy implications of the legislation’s key elements and discuss how other states might consider altering the scope and specifics of those components. We conclude that both parts of the Massachusetts reform strategy merit consideration by other states and together hold promise for expanding coverage, particularly by addressing the problem of coverage discontinuity.
September 01, 2006
Solutions for the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
It wasn't exactly man-bites-dog news when word came this week that the number of Americans without health insurance has continued to climb.
2005 Commentary
December 09, 2005
Recovering Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko and Derek Hunter
Long-term promises almost always turn into long-term problems. Just ask Detroit.
February 02, 2005
Beginning of the End of Drug Re-Importation
By Nina Owcharenko and Andrew Grossman
Could this be the beginning of the end of the debate over drug re-importation? Advocates of the practice argue that American consumers, particularly seniors...
2004 Commentary
August 25, 2004
Time to Stop Drug Reimportation
By Nina Owcharenko
So the governor of Illinois plans to help residents of his state buy prescription drugs from other countries. And he's only the latest politician to join a movement toward "reimportation" that's popped up in other places nationwide.
May 19, 2004
Curing Health Care with Choice
By Nina Owcharenko
Last week's "Covering the Uninsured Week" brought a slew of ideas from across the health care policy spectrum. Politicians and activists offered a variety of solutions to help reduce the troubling number of Americans without health insurance. Unfortunately, their proposals are just more of the same.
February 23, 2004
Resuscitating Health Care: Bush Plan a Good First Step
By Stuart Butler and Nina Owcharenko
What's the best way to help Americans who lack health insurance because they can't afford it? Some say universal health care is the answer. But there's a far better solution, especially for those wisely skeptical of one-size-fits-all remedies from Washington.
2003 Commentary
October 14, 2003
Slow Road To HillaryCare
By Nina Owcharenko
There is something we can do to increase the number of people with coverage, while we also increase their free choice. The answer is a health-care tax credit.
March 05, 2003
Improving the Welfare of Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
Improving the Welfare of Medicaid
2002 Commentary
November 14, 2002
ED111402: Give Credit Where It's Due
By Nina Owcharenko
ED111402: Give Credit Where It's Due
August 27, 2002
ed082702b13: Restoring Medicare To Good Health
By Nina Owcharenko
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Medicaid: A Grim Diagnosis
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Medicaid: A Grim Diagnosis
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By Nina Owcharenko
Health-Care Tax Credits: A Shot in the Arm
