Antipoverty Insurance: A Mode of Private Sector Participation

PUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION S EMPHASIS on involving the private sector, the proposals it has thus far suggested for dealing with the nonworking poor rely exclusively on the public sector. They include a new federal food stamp plan; a seven per cent increase in social security benefits; the Finch proposal (a modified version of the negative income tax) which would federalize the welfare system; and the Burns plan which would rely on the expansion of day-care facilities, job training, and other existing welfare schemes by relying on the federal and state governments. We suggest a plan which would provide for the involvement of the private sector, specifically the insurance industry, in the struggle against poverty in a way which is described in detail below. There are many reasons to involve the private sector. Those we find the most compelling are: the private sector is affluent while the public sector-especially on the domestic side-is impoverished; the private sector has particular competence and experience in administering insurance programs, attributes which hopefully would make this plan more efficient than the notoriously inefficient existing welfare arrangements; and private sector in-