Variations in health insurance coverage: benefits vs. premiums

Abstract

Renewed national interest in market forces to promote more efficient and cost-conscious behavior by patients and providers increasingly focuses on the structure of private health insurance benefits. Two features of procompetitive legislative proposals are considered: a ceiling on tax-free employer insurance premiums and offering greater choice of insurance plans. The interests of efficiency and equity invoke different kinds of risks and transfers; no single institutional approach is likely to yield the promised benefits.