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AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Health Care Policy today released a policy brief, Self-Insurance: The ObamaCare Escape Hatch, that urges Texas lawmakers to authorize a state-regulated, savings-based approach to individual health insurance, and also take steps to make self-insurance more affordable for small businesses by exempting stop-loss coverage from certain state taxes. These two reforms at the state level would help many Texans and Texas employers avoid costly penalties and taxes associated with the Affordable Care Act, and serve as a model for other states. “The Affordable Care Act has proven to be unaffordable for many small businesses and individuals,” said John Davidson, scholar at the Center for Health Care Policy, "many of whose pre-ObamaCare policies were canceled and whose coverage options on the exchanges are significantly more expensive. It’s little wonder that so few Texans have signed up for ObamaCare coverage on the exchange. “But states are not helpless in the face of ObamaCare. By recognizing those who set aside funds to pay for their own health care as self-insured individuals, and by making self-insurance more affordable for small firms, Texas can lead the way toward a market-driven, patient-centered alternative to ObamaCare. In contrast to the federal bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., Texas lawmakers should empower Texans to be able to pay for health care on their own terms, if they so choose, and enable Texas employers to run their businesses as they see fit.”
John Davidson is a senior policy analyst for the Center for Health Care Policy with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com -30- |