Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Health

Employer Requirement Under Consideration For Senate Finance Committee Health Bill Could Discourage Hiring of Low-Income, Minority, Disabled Workers

"While an employer responsibility requirement is an essential component of health care reform, a proposal that the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee are considering for the forthcoming health legislation is flawed and would have serious unintended consequences, particularly for low-income and minority workers and workers with disabilities."

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Paying for Health Reform

Reducing Medicaid and Medicare Drug Costs Could Help Pay for Health Reform

By lowering the costs that Medicaid and Medicare pay for prescription drugs, Congress could generate substantial savings to help pay for comprehensive health reform that achieves universal coverage. Read more

Additional reports in the Center’s series on paying for health reform:

Topics

Basics

Medicaid is a federal-state public insurance program that provides health coverage to more than 60 million low-income Americans, including children, parents, seniors, and people with disabilities. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) gives states matching federal funds to provide health coverage to roughly 4 million children in families whose income is modestly above Medicaid limits, typically up to 200 percent of the poverty line, about $42,000 for a family of four. Medicare is a federal program that provides health coverage to more than 40 million Americans, primarily individuals age 65 and older but also including several million younger adults with permanent disabilities.

Policy Basics:
- Introduction to Medicaid

Featured Experts

January Angeles

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Donna Cohen Ross

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Edwin Park

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Judith Solomon

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Paul Van de Water

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The Center works to ensure that federal and state health insurance programs provide coverage that meets the health care needs of low-income children and families, as well as seniors and people with disabilities. The Center also works to remove barriers preventing eligible families from gaining access to health coverage.