Symposia & Meetings

June 2006 Symposium

The Changing Health Insurance Market: Implications for Public Policy and State Government Purchasers

A one-day symposium convened on Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Escalating health insurance premiums, a decline in employer-sponsored insurance, and a growing emphasis on consumer direction have dramatically altered the health insurance landscape. On June 13, 2006, the Center for Health Program Development and Management at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, sponsored a symposium to examine the implications of these developments for public policy. The symposium explored the evolving role of states in covering the uninsured in the face of widespread substitution of public insurance for employer-sponsored insurance. Participants examined what it means to be “insured” in the face of regulatory changes that are likely to alter both the definition of health insurance and the health insurance market. The influence of consumer-directed health insurance products on consumer behavior was explored, as well as how states are experimenting with Medicaid consumer-directed purchasing.