Street: Public Subsidies for Private Health Insurance: Perverse Incentives or Practical Welfare?
Most evidence suggests that tax expenditures for private health insurance in the U.S. perversely redistribute public resources for health care from low-waged, insecurely employed to high-waged, securely employed individuals. However, there is no inherent characteristic of tax mechanisms that precludes their use as a practical form of welfare to extend health insurance to more Americans. Tax expenditures and/or credits can be designed to effectively redistribute benefits to low income individuals, like the U .S. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which boosts incomes for low-income working families. In the realm of health insurance, tax expenditures can be used as a tool to extend coverage to low-income or other uninsured individuals, if program design takes such needs into account.
Debra Street’s interests are in the fields of public policy, particularly policies related to health/medicine and income security.
Brian Gran’s current research focuses on comparative social policy as it is formed in the intersection of the public and private sectors.
