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A project of
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10 Free St.
2nd Floor
Portland, ME 04101
207.874.6524
info@nashp.org
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"Premium assistance" is a health insurance purchasing strategy in which a state uses public funds to pay for a portion of the premium costs of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) for eligible populations. States have also infrequently used premium assistance to subsidize individual insurance policies. One state, Massachusetts, provides subsidies to small employers who provide coverage to their employees. Fourteen states are operating premium assistance programs as of February 2004, and at least ten other states are at various points in the planning process.
Many states have expressed interest in pursuing premium assistance because they want to take advantage of the contributions that employers make toward the cost of employee health insurance coverage. These states reason that the savings that will result from leveraging employer contributions can help address tight state budgets and provide a mechanism to cover a greater number of the uninsured population. Some states also place value on using the private sector to provide coverage, rather than expanding public programs. The potential to reduce state costs and cover more people is attractive; however, many factors affect how well premium assistance works in a given state. It is important that states carefully consider these factors when deciding to use premium assistance to provide coverage.
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Funded by the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services
and The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives program, housed at AcademyHealth.
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