Is RendellCare good medicine? - Commonwealth Foundation

Three articles in the NE PA Business Journal on Governor Rendell’s health care proposals, all featuring the Commonwealth Foundation’s Rick Dreyfuss.

Is Gov. Rendell’s ‘Prescription for Pennsylvania’ Good Medicine?:
Dreyfuss: “I just question whether more government investment in the health-care system ultimately leads to a more competitive marketplace. I don’t see a lot of evidence where it does”

Rx for Affordability:
Dreyfuss: “I don’t see the plan reducing the cost of health care and I see it increasing the cost of government. It’s not the direction I think we should be going.”

Does the proposed 3% tax on employers violate ERISA?:
Dreyfuss: “What ERISA said is that employers are not required to provide any specific employee benefit level and, as such, they remain free to amend or modify or even to choose whether to offer these programs at all,” says Dreyfuss.

According to Dreyfuss, the governor’s CAP program mirrors the Maryland law except it targets all employers and sets a 3 percent threshold instead of 8 percent.

“So if you take at a given that this provision of the Rendell health-care proposal is somewhere between problematic and illegal, that puts to risk the revenue stream that is anticipated to come out of this,” says Dreyfuss.