Manhattan Institute Convenes Second Conference

The Manhattan Institute continued its work to inform public dialogue about health insurance coverage with its April 29, 2008 conference to review who goes without insurance coverage in New York State, and what regulatory and market changes would allow them to be served at a price they can afford. The conference convened two panels with a diverse group of health care professionals, analysts, academics and policymakers.

Sara Horowitz, the Founder and Executive Director of Working Today, a Freelancers Union program, spoke about her innovative program of bringing freelance workers together to buy insurance. Horowitz noted that her main concern is an individual’s ability to negotiate with an insurance company was limited when compared with a large employer. The Freelancers Union, Horowtiz argued, is omits this limitation with its 72,000 members nationwide and working with the insurer directly on behalf of its members.

The second panel, entitled Innovative Services in Health Care Markets, highlighted pioneering efforts at the provider level. Dr. Kevin Kelleher, a practicing family physician from Virginia spoke about the continuing struggle of primary care physicians to make do with woefully low reimbursement rates from both public and private insurers. As co-founder of Executive Healthcare Services, Dr. Kelleher has tried to supersede this problem by providing retainer-based services for patients.

Following Dr. Kelleher was Web Golinkin, who as RediClinic CEO is a leader in retail healthcare clinics, which partner with leading retail chains that include pharmacies (such as Wal-Mart and Duane Reade) to provide health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. While not intended to be full-service health providers, the clinics are able to treat and diagnose patients with common illnesses such as strep throat or ear infections, which often place unnecessary pressure on emergency rooms or other health providers. These clinics, Golinkin argued, provide a cost-effective alternative for patients who only need short visits and he predicted they would continue to become more common.

Closing out the panel was Jim Frogue, Project Director for the Center for Health Transformation. Frogue spoke about a new Georgia law, poised to be signed by the Governor, that he described as revolutionary. The law removes all taxes on premiums in the states, make Health Savings Account eligible High Deductible Health Plans 100% tax deductible, provide tax credits for high deductible plans, and allow the purchase of plans from out-of-state. Frogue argued this was the kind of policy shift that could be implemented in states across the country—particularly New York—and could make an enormous difference to increase competition and decrease the number of the uninsured.