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Washington – A report, Proposed Regulations Could Limit Access to Affordable Health Coverage for Workers’ Children and Family Members, released today by University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Berkeley researchers documents that a proposed U.S. Treasury Department rule could deny health care insurance to more than 70,000 California children and hundreds of thousands nationwide.
The proposed rule would assess the affordability of employer-sponsored health insurance for an entire family based on the costs of coverage for the employee only. In fact, employee-only insurance premiums average about $5,000 a year, while annual employee-and-family premiums are nearly triple the cost, averaging about $14,000. The UCLA / UC Berkeley study confirms that, unless the final rule adopts a more realistic approach, families will be denied Affordable Care Act health insurance affordability tax credits, leaving many children uninsured.
In response, First Focus President Bruce Lesley issued the following statement:
“As a dad, I’d never build a groceries budget just for me – my wife and the kids eat too. We should expect at least that level of financial planning sophistication from the Treasury Department. With the health care of so many children hanging in the balance, it’s time for politicians on both sides of the aisle to stop pointing fingers and start fixing this problem.”
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First Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.firstfocus.net.