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Individual Coverage

Volume 5, Number 4

Summer 2005

Introduction	Individual coverage can be difficult to find, hard to keep, and hard to afford.  Some states have created special state-run pools for individuals and small groups and some regulate the individual insurance market to ensure that coverage is available.  Few states offer subsidized coverage to individuals who are close to the Medicaid eligibility line and have been inventive in helping lower-wage workers combine premiums and public medical assistance.
In the Abstract	The Effect of Health Savings Accounts on Health Insurance Coverage The Role of the Individual Health Insurance Market and Prospects for Change The Effect of Tax Credits for Nongroup Insurance on Health Spending by the Uninsured Government as Reinsurer for Very-High-Cost Persons in Nongroup Health Insurance Markets Subsidies and the Demand for Individual Health Insurance in California Different States, Different Options
Who Knows	An interview with Mila Kofman, J.D., assistant research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and Janet Trautwein, vice-president of government affairs at the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU).
What Works	Publicly-Funded Individual Coverage in Minnesota
On the Horizon	Individual tax credits and health savings accounts (HSAs) are emerging as favored ways to build on the federal income tax system to make individual insurance more affordable.
Digging Deeper	Helpful resources for further research.
(printer-friendly version) For questions or comments about this issue, please contact Kala Ladenheim at kala.ladenheim@ncsl.org or at 202-624-3557.

State Health Lawmakers' Digest is produced by the Forum for State Health Policy Leadership at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Issues of the digest can be found at: www.ncsl.org/programs/health/forum/shld/index.htm For more information, please contact the Forum at (202) 624-5400 or at health.chairs@ncsl.org. State Health Lawmakers' was produced with the generous support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.