This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Caring for the Uninsured and Underinsured  • Health Policy  • Alert me on articles by topic

Assessing US Health Insurance Coverage

Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2007;297:1049.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

With approximately 45 million US residents lacking health insurance, improving access to care is on the minds of many experts. Among them is Princeton University's Uwe Reinhardt, PhD, one of the nation's leading authorities on health care economics and a member of JAMA's editorial board. JAMA spoke with Reinhardt recently about his thoughts on recently introduced health care proposals and how the country might mend its current system.

Uwe Reinhardt, PhD (Photo credit: John Roemer/Princeton University)

JAMA: What is your assessment of President Bush's proposal to reform the tax code with a standard deduction of $7500 for individuals and $15 000 for families who obtain health insurance on their own or through an employer?

Dr Reinhardt: It's fiddling with the tax code at the margin, but it still perpetuates an inequity that's always been in that code—namely, that high-income people benefit more dollarwise from tax deductions of . . . [Full Text of this Article]