The work of Karen Pollitz, M.P.P., has focused on the availability of insurance for high-risk groups, including those with diabetes and other serious or chronic health conditions. Additionally, she has examined market strategies and public policies that could be used to ensure the availability of affordable and adequate coverage for all Americans, regardless of health and risk status.

In her current HCFO-sponsored project Pollitz takes an important early look at one market strategy that the federal government has initiated, tax credits. Her project focuses on the health care tax credit (HCTC) that was created as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act of 2002. This new, refundable and advance-payable health care tax credit is equal to 65 percent of qualified health insurance costs for trade-dislocated workers.In addition, retirees 55 or older who receive pension benefits through Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) are eligible for the new credit. Although the population of eligible individuals is small, this tax credit may set a precedent for change in the organization and financing of private health insurance and can be viewed as a small-scale demonstration of health insurance tax credits to expand coverage. Pollitz’s examination of the HCTC includes various design features of the new program, how they work in the early implementation stages, and what lessons they can teach those who would build on—or modify—this coverage expansion model.

This project examines qualified coverage options established by states, in particular, those offered by private health insurers. It reviews benefit design, premiums, and insurer practices regarding rating, medical underwriting, and eligibility verification and studies how these factors may affect take up of coverage eligible for HCTC. The project also examines costs to the federal government to establish and administer the new tax credit program. The purpose of this study is to provide policymakers with objective and timely information that will help them monitor and understand the early operations of this program.

As a project director at Georgetown Policy Institute, Pollitz directs research on health insurance reform issues and their effects on consumers and patients. Her research areas of focus include regulation of private health insurance plans and markets, managed care consumer protections, and access to affordable health insurance. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s Graduate Public Policy School. In addition to her HCFO-sponsored project, her other projects at Georgetown Policy Institute include the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Consumer Guides Project” and the “Consumer Healthcare Education Project."

Before joining the Georgetown Policy Institute, Pollitz served as deputy assistant secretary for Health Legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1997. There she acted as the Secretary’s legislative liaison on all federal health care issues, including national health care reform, Medicare, Medicaid, and U.S. Public Health Service agencies and programs. Pollitz holds an M.P.P. from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. with Honors from Oberlin College.