On October 16, 2023, Paragon President Brian Blase was quoted in Forbes’ article “This Healthcare Reform Could Finally Bring Democrats And Republicans Together.”
From the article:
About 500,000 people use ICHRAs today. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that some 2 million will be enrolled by 2032.
But not everyone sees it this way. Where Republicans see ICHRAs as a way to give employers and employees more insurance choices, Democrats tend to view them as a tool for employers to get out of offering health coverage to employees.
The Democrats’ critique is puzzling, given that ICHRA funds can only be used to purchase Obamacare-compliant individual market plans. In fact, expanding ICHRAs could boost exchange enrollment and bolster other Democratic health policy priorities.
As the Paragon Health Institute’s Brian Blase notes, by bringing more people into the individual market, ICHRAs could “create a virtuous cycle” whereby more insurers re-enter the market, fostering competition that will drive down costs, which “will lead more employers to offer ICHRAs, leading to more enrollees, and so on.”
On top of that, Blase observes, expanding ICHRAs will bolster the individual market without a single cent of government subsidies.
