Health Care And The Economy: The "Play-Or-Pay" Mandate

In a conference call with reporters, a team of health care experts discuss two new reports that together explain how an employer health mandate can be shaped so that it does not have the adverse impact on employment predicted by crirics of health care reform.

The report by Philip Cryan published by the Institute for America’s Future and the Economic Policy Institute shows that an employer contribution to health care would most likely lead to job gains. Even under a worst-case scenario, Cryan explains that any negative impact of a requirement that employers either provide health insurance ("play") or pay into a public plan would be minimal, and would be outweighed by the benefits of more broadly available health coverage and lower health care costs.

Health care experts Jacob Hacker and Ken Jacobs discuss their report on how to structure a “play-or-pay” requirement on employers, drawing heavily from what they deem is a successful implementation of a play-or-pay requirement in San Francisco. Their study was done for the U.C. Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security and Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

Opening the call is economist Jonathan Gruber, who discusses a petition signed by 330 economists and health experts calling on President Obama and Congress to act now and act "boldly" on health care reforms.