The brief re-examines whether individual insurance can be paid on a pre-tax basis through a cafeteria plan in light of federal health reform enacted in 2010.

In this issue brief, SHARE grantee Joel Cantor and co-authors use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to evaluate the impact of dependent coverage expansion initiatives in 19 states on health insurance coverage of young adults between 2003 and 2008. The authors also examine the variation in impact among population subgroups over time.  The report concludes with a discussion of the implications of national health reform, which expanded dependent coverage to age 26 across states.

Forty-six million Americans, including nine million children, are uninsured, and the problem is growing. To combat this situation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working in several areas to accomplish the goal of ensuring that everyone in America has affordable and stable health care coverage.

In this report, Edward Miller and the SHARE research team led by Vincent Mor (Brown University) present findings from their qualitative evaluation of Rhode Island's HEALTHpact initiative, which aimed to encourage take-up of health insurance coverage in the state's small-group market.  The program has seen only minimal take-up, and Miller and his co-authors explore the reasons why through an analysis of in-depth key informant interviews, enrollment data, and archival documents.  They conclude with a set of recommendations for future small-group reform efforts based on lessons l