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Who Gets What From Employer Pay or Play Mandates?

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  • Richard V. Burkhauser
  • Kosali I. Simon

Abstract

Critics of pay or play mandates, borrowing from the large empirical minimum wage literature, argue that they reduce employment. Borrowing from a smaller empirical minimum wage literature, we argue that they also are a blunt instrument for funding health insurance for the working poor. The vast majority of those who benefit from pay or play mandates, which require employers to either provide appropriate health insurance for their workers or pay a flat per hour tax to offset the cost of health care live in families with incomes twice the poverty line or more, and depending on how coverage is determined, the mandate will leave a significant share of the working poor ineligible for such benefits either because their hourly wage rate is too high or they work for smaller exempt firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard V. Burkhauser & Kosali I. Simon, 2008. "Who Gets What From Employer Pay or Play Mandates?," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 75-102, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:rmgtin:v:11:y:2008:i:1:p:75-102
    DOI: j.1540-6296.2008.00131.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Neumark, David & Kolko, Jed, 2010. "Do enterprise zones create jobs? Evidence from California's enterprise zone program," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Richard V. Burkhauser & Sean Lyons & Kosali I. Simon, 2011. "The Importance of the Meaning and Measurement of "Affordable" in the Affordable Care Act," NBER Working Papers 17279, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Thomas C. Buchmueller & John DiNardo & Robert G. Valletta, 2011. "The Effect of an Employer Health Insurance Mandate on Health Insurance Coverage and the Demand for Labor: Evidence from Hawaii," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 25-51, November.
    4. Christopher Wimer & Zachary Parolin & Anny Fenton & Liana Fox & Christopher Jencks, 2020. "The Direct Effect of Taxes and Transfers on Changes in the U.S. Income Distribution, 1967–2015," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1833-1851, October.
    5. Marjorie A. Rosenberg & Paul H. Johnson, Jr. & Ian G. Duncan, 2010. "Perspectives Articles: Exploring Stakeholder Perspectives on What Is Affordable Health Care," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 13(2), pages 251-263, September.
    6. Richard V. Burkhauser & Jeff Larrimore & Kosali Simon, 2013. "Measuring The Impact Of Valuing Health Insurance On Levels And Trends In Inequality And How The Affordable Care Act Of 2010 Could Affect Them," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 779-794, October.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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