The GAO interviewed 41 officials from 21 organizations for a report requested by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) on alternatives that might meet aims of the mandate, such as encouraging more people to buy policies and preventing people with preexisting conditions from buying coverage only when they get sick.
The report came up with the following alternatives:
1. Modify open enrollment periods and impose late-enrollment penalties, such as higher charges and reduced benefits.
2. Encourage auto-enrollment for employer-sponsored health plans.
3. Conduct an outreach campaign to encourage people to buy insurance.
4. Provide personalized assistance to enroll the uninsured at places such as pharmacies, schools and grocery stores.
5. Impose a tax to pay for uncompensated care on people without insurance or employers who don’t offer it.
6. Allow for a greater variation in premiums, moving from the current ratio of 3:1 to 5:1, so that healthy young people would be more likely to buy health insurance.
7. Restrict federal benefits such as college loans for those who don’t buy insurance.
8. Change incentives for insurance brokers by paying them a flat fee for selling a policy, even the least expensive one.
9. Require or encourage credit-rating agencies to give higher points to the insured.
Read the GAO report on the healthcare reform law.
Read more coverage of the mandate to buy health insurance:
– Reform Proponents Doubt States Will Find Alternative to Insurance Mandate
– Judge Issues First Rejection of Individual Mandate in Reform Law
– Judge Allows Reform Law to Stand During Appeal
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