Unwilling to wait still more years for Congress to fix the tax treatment of health insurance, state legislators are now learning that they can take steps to create a new health insurance market in which individuals and families own and control their own health insurance while receiving the generous tax breaks previously available through conventional employer-provided, defined benefits plans. The best way to do this is to create a statewide health insurance exchange (HIE), a new market where individuals and families can purchase affordable and portable health insurance.

In many respects, the HIE concept is broadly similar to the popular and successful Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the consumer-driven system that covers Members of Congress, federal workers and retirees, and their families—altogether more than 8 million Americans. In key ways that concern governance, health benefits, and consumer choice, however, the FEHBP differs in crucial ways from the HIE concept.

¿ø¹®: http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm1515.cfm