Employer-sponsored coverage remains the main way half of Americans secure healthcare, and the Commonwealth Fund said Thursday that it would launch a new task force aimed at addressing affordability and access.
The organization said the National Task Force on the Future Role of Employers in the U.S. Health System is aiming to identify market incentives and regulatory policies that could drive better healthcare for workers, including improvements to population health and care delivery.
The task force's members include representatives from organizations across the political spectrum such as the Urban Institute; the American Enterprise Institute; Harvard University; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Peter Lee, senior scholar at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center, and Sherry Glied, Ph.D., dean of the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, will serve as chairs.
“It’s now 14 years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act—an ideal time for this national task force to examine the challenges and opportunities employers face in ensuring their employees have access to affordable, equitable, high-quality health care coverage, no matter who they are or where they are from,” Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., president of the Commonwealth Fund, said in a press release.
“Too often, high premiums and out-of-pocket costs deter low- and middle-income workers from enrolling in or using their employer health plans to get care," Betancourt added. "This Task Force will be laser focused on identifying policy options to tackle these barriers and strengthen workplace coverage.”
The task force will convene to weigh key questions facing the employer-sponsored insurance landscape, including an evaluation of what it currently looks like and a general picture of what employers are contributing to these plans. The group also plans to dive into where workers are facing pricing hurdles and how employers are currently able to mitigate those concerns.
In addition, the panel aims to identify policy proposals that could address these affordability barriers and could improve the quality of care provided to this population, according to the announcement.
The Commonwealth Fund said the task force intends to meet several times over the course of 2024 and will release a blueprint for the future of employer-sponsored care next year.
“The nation has made great strides in expanding coverage, but we need to be sure that the coverage most Americans get through their workplace is meeting their needs,” said Lee in the announcement. “We hope the Task Force will help chart a path forward to ensure employers make the best purchasing and coverage decisions possible, fostering better health of those they cover and improvements in the broader health system.”