Staff Directory Contact Us     Coverage By and For All Covering ALL Kids Reaching Small Firm Workers     Combine Public&Private Funds Premium Assistance Tax Subsidies     Purchasing Pools Market Reform & Risk Local Coverage Programs     Strategy&Policy Development Applied Research Technical Assistance Expert Forums & Academies                   Please click here to visit IHPS California               Sample Projects A promising approach to assist low-income workers is the Health@WorkSM hybrid financing model. This approach would uniquely parlay federal tax benefits, as well as employer and worker contributions, to extend health coverage to workers in low-wage small firms, and their dependents. By extending highly valued job-based benefits, this model also has promise to improve worker stability and job tenure. This hybrid approach would transcend traditional public, employer or individual coverage approaches - singular approaches that competing interests and ideologies have advocated in failed efforts to address the growing uninsured population. The Health@WorkSM model incorporates subsidies targeted for low income persons, like public programs; and utilizes the efficiency, risk spreading and convenient payroll withholding advantages of job-based coverage. But unlike traditional employer coverage, it calls on higher income individuals to contribute a substantial share to their premium costs. This approach does not claim to be a universally painless solution. It realistically recognizes that, while small employers in low-wage industries cannot afford market rates for coverage, many are willing to contribute something to this valued benefit for their workers- that is, if it is administratively simple to do so and the cost is low and predictable. Back to Top Sample Projects Assisting California Counties in Designing an Approach to Cover the Working Uninsured: Under a June 2003 grant from the California HealthCare Foundation, the Institute provided technical assistance to a group of interested California counties. The objective of this project was to plan and develop a local premium assistance approach, in which a consortium of local coverage expansion efforts would cover adults and children through small firms not previously offering health insurance by blending local subsidy funds with federal matching funds and employer and employee contributions. The Institute helped the counties to determine what the local premium assistance approach would look like and how it could best be implemented. This involved assistance with detailed program design and development and with investigating the potential for engaging a joint administrative vendor to work with participating employers on behalf of all participating counties. (2003) Extension of Health Insurance to Working Uninsured and Their families in Orange County, CA: The Institute provided assistance t CalOPTIMA—a Medi-Cal and Healthy Families plan that consists of multiple integrated provider-based systems—in the design of a pilot program approach under a grant CalOPTIMA received from the U.S. Health Resources Services Administration. Back to Top   Home | About IHPS | Coverage Strategies | Leveraging Limited Funds | Coverage Structures What We Do | Publications | Interested Grantors | Site Map Home | About IHPS | Coverage Strategies | Leveraging Limited Funds | Coverage Structures What We Do | Publications | Interested Grantors | Site Map Page last updated: March 02, 2006