Costs and distributional impacts of employer health insurance mandates and Medicaid expansion.

A large number of Americans are uninsured. A number of recent proposals have been developed to extend coverage to the 31 to 37 million individuals currently without health insurance. This article examines two recent proposals. The first is to mandate coverage through the workplace. Two different methods of mandating workplace coverage are explored: the recent Kennedy-Waxman bill and the approach adopted in Massachusetts. Although both approaches cover the same number of uninsured, both the aggregate costs and their distribution differ dramatically. The article also explores the coverage and cost implications of an expansion of Medicaid alone and in conjunction with the employer mandate options.