New report assesses what Ohioans can afford to pay for health insurance coverage

Policy Matters Ohio released a new report assessing what Ohioans can afford to pay for health insurance coverage (Source: "Reasonable costs: what can Ohioans afford to pay for health care? ", Policy Matters Ohio, April 29, 2008).  According to this analysis, families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty cannot afford to pay any funds for health insurance premiums, while families with incomes between 300 and 500 percent of poverty should not be expected to pay more than 4 percent of total income for total health spending.

The authors recommend that any cost sharing be set on a progessive, sliding scale.  They write that "People with lower incomes can afford to spend not only less in absolute dollars, but also less as a percentage of their income — they have less disposable income, with more of their basic family budgets devoted to other core necessities such as housing, food, and transportation."

The report calculates the cost of a basic family budget before paying for services.  This budget includes costs for housing, food, child care, transportation, school supplies, and taxes.  IThe analysis then determines what percent of poverty a family's salary needs to be cover such a basic budget and what, if anything, they have left to pay for health care costs.