Research Report The Basic Health Program Option under Federal Health Reform: Issues for Consumers and States
Stan Dorn
Display Date
File
File
Download Report
(445.79 KB)

In a report for the State Coverage Initiatives program of AcademyHealth, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Stan Dorn explores how states could use the Basic Health Program (BHP) option to provide low-income adults with more affordable and continuous coverage than they would otherwise receive from federal subsidies in the exchange. With BHP, a state could, in effect, extend the cost-sharing protections of Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program to adults with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, using 95 percent of what the federal government would have spent on subsidies in the exchange. Dorn finds that, on average, federal BHP dollars will exceed baseline Medicaid costs and that implementing BHP would cause only modest reductions in the size of state exchanges.
Research Areas Health and health care
Tags Health insurance Federal health care reform Health care delivery and payment Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program  State health care reform State Children's Health Insurance Program
Policy Centers Health Policy Center