Timothy Stoltzfus Jos
Robert L. Willett Family Professor of Law and Ethan Allen Faculty Fellow, Washington and Lee University: School of Law

The Regulation of Private Health Insurance examines the current role of health insurance regulation and the role that it could play in a reformed health care system. It begins by exploring the nature of health insurance and alternative approaches to regulation. It next considers the current status of state and federal health insurance regulation, both describing the development of health insurance regulation and examining arguments in support of and in opposition to regulatory interventions. Finally, it considers the kind of insurance regulation that will be needed in a reformed health care system, as well as the question of whether authority for insurance regulation should be placed at the federal or state level. It concludes that the best approach would be to develop national standards for health insurance enforced primarily at the state level.

Click here to download the full working paper, commissioned by a joint study panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the National Academy of Public Administration on Administrative Solutions in Health Reform. For a list of other papers and study panel members, click here. The project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.