The Manhattan Institute For Policy Research, Inc.

Approximately 2.5 million New Yorkers lacked health insurance in 2007 according to estimates from the United Hospital Fund, a New York City-based health policy center. In an attempt to offer solutions to this issue, the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc. issued a white paper entitled “Rx NY” that analyzed reform proposals under debate in New York and offered market-driven recommendations for reform. This white paper served as the background paper for two conferences convened by the Manhattan Institute. In the first of two grants from the New York Health Foundation’s Coverage Consortium initiative, the Manhattan Institute convened two conferences that featured health policy professionals who fostered debate and discussion about the role of market-based strategies in increasing access to coverage.

This project was part of a larger NYHealth Coverage Consortium that funded 10 grants to seven universities, policy institutes, and community agencies across the State, supporting projects that could inform State health reform efforts, offer ways to streamline enrollment in public programs, significantly reduce costs and improve quality, and test ideas for expanding coverage among small employers, sole proprietors, and self-employed people.

Read an NYHealth special report that contains a summary of findings from this consortium.

The Manhattan Institute’s project will fund two conferences through the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress. The conferences will review who goes without insurance coverage in New York State and what regulatory and market changes might allow them to be served at a price they can afford.

The first conference will stress that a one-size-fits-all solution to the health insurance crisis is unlikely to address the diverse group of uninsured, which includes young adults, working poor households, and the self-employed middle class. The second conference will examine potential approaches to extending health insurance coverage throughout the State. It will examine “universal plans” under consideration in other states and raise the broad question of how to make health insurance affordable to people with modest incomes in ways that meet society’s responsibility to care for the sick and injured and at the same time make it economically efficient.

This project is part of the NYS Health Coverage Consortium.