Tuesday saw a small victory yesterday when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis stating that health insurance premiums should not rise for most Americans under the bill that the Senate is currently debating. The report, generated from the non-partisan CBO, is the closet thing we’ve seen to an factual assessment of this debate.
Even though this analysis may have health reform advocates dancing on their roofs it should be noted that the report did not examine the aggregate cost of health care reform the the American economy (which is a Major concern). The CBO instead examined the cost of insurance premiums, which the federal government promises to contain with federal subsidies worth nearly $450 billion over the course of a decade.
The CBO’s report also stated that the most Americans who are getting their insurance through employers will not see a change in premium costs, but it’s a far different story for anyone who purchases health insurance on their own. Most will see their premiums decline by over 50% due to the federal subsidies.
While this is great news for quite a few Americans, it’s abhorrent that we do not forget the 14 million health insurance customers who earn more than $88,000 per year, those individuals will see a premium increase of at least 10-13%.
Where are we now?
The proposed Senate bill will provide insurance for 31 million Americans who currently lack coverage, similar to that already offered by our popular Dade Blue Cross program. It will strong arm insurers to take less than favorable positions when dealing with policy holders and will most likely increase the overall price of health care on the tax payer.
The Senate still has much work to do on cost containment for the financially conservative Americans to take it seriously and do more to move itself away from the fee-for-service payments that increase costs.
Please feel free to read more unfettered health care reform news here at: ECHealthInsurance.com
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