NY’s Fair Share Bill: Up to 100,000 Jobs Lost, $9.2 Billion Hit to Business

Employment Policies Institute recommends better alternatives to employer mandates for helping uninsured
  • Publication Date: June 2006

  • Topics: Health Care

Washington DC – As the New York Senate holds a committee hearing today to explore ways of increasing healthcare coverage in the state, the Employment Policies Institute [EPI] recommends policies that will reduce healthcare costs for the individual rather than expensive and ineffective employer mandates that will put low-skilled employees out of work.

Research from an economist at the University of Kentucky reveals that the proposed “Fair Share for Health Care” employer mandate would deliver up to a $9.2 billion blow to state business, destroy up to 100,000 jobs in the first year alone, and still ignore approximately 83% of uninsured New Yorkers.

Analysis by former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers R. Glenn Hubbard, former White House economic adviser John F. Cogan, and Stanford economist Daniel Kessler recommend implementing policies and tax breaks that will reduce the cost of healthcare for individuals without jeopardizing jobs. Among their recommendations:

* “All Americans should be entitled to deduct health insurance and out-of-pocket health care expenses as long as they purchase insurance.”
* “Mak[e] all individuals eligible for HSAs [Health Savings Accounts] conditional on the purchase of insurance that covers at least catastrophic expenditures.”
* “[O]ffer low-income households financial assistance to purchase health services. Specifically, we propose a refundable tax credit.”

“The high cost, lost jobs, and overall ineffectiveness of employer mandates should lead lawmakers to abandon the notion that the current healthcare crisis can be addressed through employer mandates,” said Mike Flynn, director of legislative affairs at the Employment Policies Institute. “Real solutions must tackle the problem of skyrocketing health care costs overall and not just pass the buck on to businesses.”

To read the study, “The Impact of the ‘Fair Share for Health Care Act’ on New York’s Labor Market,” visit www.EPIonline.org

To read the paper “Making Markets Work: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System,” visit www.EPIonline.org/MakingMarketsWork.