TY  - JOUR
AU  - Buchmueller,Thomas C.
AU  - Monheit,Alan C.
TI  - Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Promise of Health Insurance Reform
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14839
PY  - 2009
Y2  - April 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14839
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14839.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas C. Buchmueller
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
701 Tappan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Tel: 734/764-5933
E-Mail: tbuch@bus.umich.edu

Alan C. Monheit
School of Public Health
University of Medicine and Dentistry of
New Jersey (UMDNJ)
683 Hoes Lane West
Piscataway, NJ  08854-5635
Tel: 732/235-2865
Fax: 732/235-4004
E-Mail: monheiac@umdnj.edu
AB  - The central role that employers play 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 source of health care financing.  In this paper, we consider the "goodness of fit" of ESI in the current economic and health insurance environments and in light of prospects for a vigorous national debate over shape of health care reform.  The main issue that we explore is whether ESI can have a viable role in health system reform efforts or whether such coverage will need to be significantly modified or even abandoned as reform seeks to address important issues in the efficient provision and equitable distribution of health insurance coverage, to create expanded health plan choices and competition in health insurance markets, and to structure incentives for the more efficient use of health services.
ER  -