ABSTRACT
A new tax credit to help low-income families and individuals purchase health insurance can address the problem of affordability, but will not overcome other barriers these populations face in obtaining coverage. This paper proposes that families have the option of using a new tax credit to buy into a state-administered system such as Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program. This option has three advantages. First, it allows families to remain with a single health program and health plan as their income fluctuates. Second, it provides an alternative to the complex and confusing individual insurance market. This alternative is community rated, does not use underwriting, and allows health plan behavior to be monitored closely by the state. Third, it allows the state to act as a financial buffer-helping overcome the barrier to participation that cash-flow problems and year-end reconciliation concerns are likely to create among a low-income population. Many people would want to use their tax credit in the private market, but the buy-in option increases the likelihood that the tax credit approach would succeed.
Subject(s)
Health Services Accessibility/economics , Income Tax , Medical Assistance/organization & administration , Medically Uninsured , Adult , Child , Economic Competition , Eligibility Determination , Family , Humans , Insurance Benefits , Insurance Selection Bias , Medicaid/organization & administration , Models, Organizational , United StatesABSTRACT
1. Computerized visual fields have recently been used to study patients before and after treatment of choroidal melanoma with plaque therapy. Such information is unavailable for patients diagnosed with retinoblastoma. 2. There is no information on the long term visual fields of successfully treated retinoblastoma; therefore, no comparisons can be made between the effects of photocoagulation, cryotherapy, plaques, and external beam radiation on the visual field defects. 3. External beam radiation to tumors around the optic nerve caused widespread patchy sparing because of partial destruction of the nerve fiber layer. Whether the destruction was related to the position of the tumors or the effect of the radiation is unknown.
