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| Helping the Uninsured |
September 22, 2004 |
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Dear Friends,
I’ve been working for some time on the rest of the challenges facing healthcare in New Mexico – everything from improving reimbursement rates for doctors to strengthening disease prevention. Of all the challenges, the problem of the uninsured is one of the most difficult.
Last year, 45 million Americans lacked health insurance at some point in the year. They are not a homogenous group and there won’t be a single solution to reduce their number. For example, 20 percent of the uninsured had annual incomes over $50,000, and eight percent earned more than $75,000. While some these people may have pre-existing conditions that make it hard to get coverage, a lot of them are choosing not to have health insurance.
As we address the problem of people who cannot afford insurance, we need to avoid having people of more modest means picking up the tab for those who can buy it but don’t.
I’ve recently cosponsored a bill that might help. The bill would create a refundable advance tax credit for the purchase of health insurance -- $1,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a family.
A refundable credit can go to people even if they owe no income taxes. An advance credit means they can get it at the beginning of the year rather than as a reimbursement at the end.
The average cost of an individual health insurance policy is $1,284 annually. We first tried something like this in 2002 for workers whose jobs moved overseas. It seemed to work, but a relatively small number of people qualified for it.
Cost is the biggest barrier to health insurance for people of modest means. This could really help.
Wish you were here,
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