According to new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, one of the leading health research organizations in the country, nearly 27 million people are newly uninsured due to their or a family member’s job loss in the last two months. A new issue brief out today from the National Taxpayers Union outlines a new proposal for Pandemic Health Accounts (PHAs) that would address these severe health insurance shortcomings while saving taxpayer money and empowering patients in ways that other proposals do not. PHAs would function similarly to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and be filled with a one-time credit from the federal government to help individuals and families afford insurance and/or additional health needs for the next four months.
PHAs specifically target the 27 million people who are newly uninsured and provide assistance at a much lower cost to taxpayers than other alternatives. While other proposals cost between $100 and $150 billion dollars, this proposal has an estimated cost of between $56 billion and $67 billion, with an even lower net cost when one accounts for the 12.7 million people served by PHAs who would otherwise go to Medicaid.
NTU’s Policy and Government Affairs Manager, Andrew Lautz, explains:
“PHAs can accomplish a few things that certain other options cannot easily achieve: 1) target relief at those who need it, rather than make broad-based changes to the American health care system during a pandemic, and 2) make relief a temporary bridge rather than a permanent and expensive change to law, amidst other priorities and programs competing for taxpayer dollars in an unprecedented time..”
Today perhaps more than ever, it is essential to make responsible decisions regarding the use of taxpayer dollars. By targeting the 27 million newly uninsured individuals and creating a temporary bridge to relief, NTU’s Pandemic Health Accounts plan provides an effective and fiscally responsible solution.
To learn more about NTU’s PHA solution and discuss why it is the best alternative, please contact Kevin Glass, National Taxpayers Union’s Vice President of Communications, at 703-299-8670 or at kglass@ntu.org.