Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 25, no. 6 (2006): 1556-1566 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.25.6.1556 © 2006 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Employer-Sponsored, Personal, And Portable Health Insurance

John C. Goodman

Personal and portable health insurance is an idea whose time has come. Despite its stated intent, however, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) strongly discourages individually owned, portable insurance. Federal tax laws do the same. Some examples of portable benefits exist, such as the TIAA-CREF system. This paper considers three reform models for moving toward personal, portable coverage: the National Center for Policy Analysis–Texas Blue Cross Blue Shield proposal, the Massachusetts health care plan, and a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) approach. Congress could make the transition smoother by clarifying when and if individually owned insurance can be purchased with pretax dollars.

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				D. U. Himmelstein, S. Woolhandler, J. C. Goodman, and R. M. Sade Our Health Care System at the Crossroads: Single Payer or Market Reform? Ann. Thorac. Surg., November 1, 2007; 84(5): 1435 - 1446. [Full Text] [PDF]

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