On July 17, 2009, the Urban Institute issued its much-anticipated final report, Achieving Quality, Affordable Health Insurance for All New Yorkers: An Analysis of  Reform Options, to the New York State Departments of Health and Insurance. The report analyzes four NY State health reform options, but focused on a “public-partnership” option, which it modeled 18 different ways.

Read HCFANY’s summary of the report here.

The HCFANY summary identifies a number of concerns in the Urban Institute (UI) report, including:

• The limited role anticipated for New York’s existing public insurance programs;
• The unrealistically low affordability standard adopted by the UI;
• Large crowd-out numbers, which will raise overall costs of health reform for all; and
• The need for greater depth of analysis to understand the dynamics of both the single-payer and New York Health Plus options.

HCFANY commends the State for its serious evaluation of health reform options and looks forward to an on-going conversation through the Partnership For Coverage (P4C) process.