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Health Insurance Cooperatives: An Alliance for Health Reform Toolkit (PDF)

20 pages. Excerpt: As Congress approaches what may be the final stage of this year's health reform debates, legislators continue to search for creative solutions that will expand coverage and reduce costs with little impact on the federal budget. One proposed solution ? health insurance cooperatives ? has received increasing attention as an alternative to a new public coverage plan. Cooperatives are businesses that are owned by members. A health insurance cooperative is owned and operated by the people receiving health coverage through the organization. Since there are no shareholders, profits and savings in a health cooperative can generate reduced premiums or increased benefits for the consumer.

Health Reform Do's and Don'ts: Veterans of Early 90s' Health Reform Debate Offer Advice to Today's Reformers

Excerpt: To offer guidance to today's reformers and reporters covering today's reform efforts, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored a December 12 briefing for reporters featuring veterans of the 1990s debate. The Alliance will present a program on the same topic Jan. 18 on Capitol Hill, also cosponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. What went wrong in 1994? What should be done differently the next time around? Panelists answered these questions with many practical suggestions.

Implementing Health Reform (PDF)

4 pages. Excerpt: This issue brief describes how federal and state government implementation efforts will mesh, and some key tasks to be performed by each. It describes the tools available to federal agencies in implementing the law, such as rulemaking. It notes the discretion states have in carrying out the law, such as decisions involving pre-existing condition insurance plans and health insurance exchanges. Includes a simplified guide to informal rulemaking.

Implementation Opportunities and Challenges for Employers and Consumers under Health Reform

Excerpt: This briefing ... explored some of the the major provisions that relate to these changes. Among them: What impact, if any, will the individual and employer mandates, minimum benefits requirements and allowing young adults on their parents' health plans until age 26 have on cost and coverage? What are the implications of the 1099 reporting requirement? How can consumers access their benefits and rights under the new reform law? Employer health plans: To grandfather or not grandfather?

Videos and a Podcast on Affordability and Health Reform: If We Mandate, Will They (and Can They) Pay?

"The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund co-sponsored this briefing to explore the health reform proposals being considered which may impose responsibilities on both individuals and employers to have and help pay for coverage and whether they will be able to pay the amounts above the subsidies. Questions addressed include: If Congress exempts people from the coverage requirement or significantly reduces the penalties for noncompliance, will enough healthy individuals purchase new coverage to adequately spread risk? How generous will subsidies in the final reform package be? What costs -- both premiums and out-of-pocket -- will individuals and families face? How will small employers be able to afford coverage for their employees?"

Implementing Health Reform: Employer and Consumer Issues (PDF)

Excerpt: Under the health reform law, employers must decide whether to keep their existing health benefits intact ('grandfather' the plan), and thus avoid some mandates of the reform law. Doing so, however, requires that the firm not significantly cut benefits or raise employee out-of-pocket costs. (They can switch insurers, however.)

Lessons Learned: The Health Reform Debate of 1993-1994 (PDF)

4 pages. Excerpt: No matter who wins the White House and control of Congress in November, health reform legislation will likely be a front-burner issue for both the House and Senate in 2009. The debates about reform and the behind-the-scenes meetings of 1993 and 1994 produced a wealth of knowledge on what should be done differently the next time Congress and the White House take up this issue. This issue brief, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recounts nine lessons learned as recalled by veterans from both sides of the aisle and from the administration.

The New Health Reform Law and Private Insurance

Excerpt: [This recorded April 30 webcast] dealt with how the new health reform law affects access to private coverage. A range of specific provisions were covered, including the new federal high-risk pools, tax credits for small businesses, health insurance exchanges, the individual mandate, and employer obligations.

'Toolkit' on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and State Health Reform (PDF)

7 pages. Excerpt: This toolkit offers links to resources that will help readers better understand the relationship between ERISA and state-level health reform.

The Decline in Employer-Sponsored Health Expense Coverage: Why It's Happening and Why We Need to Be Concerned (PDF)

4 pages. Excerpt: In September 2007 the Alliance for Health Reform, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, held a Capitol Hill briefing to examine the state of employer-based coverage. Panelists were Paul Fronstin, Employee Benefit Research Institute; Robert Galvin, General Electric; Gerald Shea, AFL-CIO; and Len Nichols, New America Foundation. This issue brief incorporates material from that briefing.