Congressional Budget Office: . Kennedy & Dodd plan leave 36 million people uninsured

[steven johnson]

Healthcare reform is a mixed bag. It seems to promise all things to all people but the price tag remains high, if undefined. The CBO is raising questions about the most prominent plan being proposed.

...But as the president spoke at the annual conference of the American Medical Association in Chicago, it became clear that one of the major health plans on the table would cost at least $1 trillion over 10 years yet leave tens of millions of people uninsured.

An analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office raised the hurdles for draft legislation in the Senate just as its Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee planned to begin voting on Wednesday. The office concluded that a plan by the committee’s Democratic leaders, Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, would reduce the number of uninsured only by a net 16 million people. Even if the bill became law, the budget office said, 36 million people would remain uninsured in 2017.

The budget office estimated that 39 million people would get coverage through new “insurance exchanges.” But at the same time, it said, the number of people with employer-provided health insurance would decline by 15 million, or about 10 percent, and coverage from other sources would fall by 8 million.

In effect, the office said, millions of people would get a better deal if they bought insurance through an exchange because they could qualify for federal subsidies not available if they stayed in their employers’ health plans. Subsidies are expected to average $5,000 to $6,000 a person.



Cost Concerns as Obama Pushes Health Issue

[JDPriestly]

1. We need single payer now. We don't need co-ops or other such

intermediary bureaucracies. Here is what I don' like about the co-op idea by any name:

1) Co-ops would mean thousands of ways and means to commit fraud.

2) Co-ops would invite fraud at several levels. Embezzlement and fraudulent charges would occur frequently. Too much money in too many hands.

3) Co-ops would require a lot of oversight entailing the creation of yet another government bureaucracy to oversee the co-ops and keep them honest.

Might as well just go for single payer in the first place. That would mean one government bureaucracy with accountability and oversight from the legislature and courts. That's clean, simple and will be far more efficient and cheaper.

Co-ops will not solve our problem. They will just create new ones.

[OHdem10]

2. IMO, HealthCare Reform has been sold DURING CAMPAIGN

and since as providing Insurance to 46,000.000 Americans who have none.

You know, I say this with respect: It does not look credible to
be spending humongous amounts of money and still leave millions
of Americans uncovered.

The Democrats will have egg on their face if they come up with
a plan and we do not have health coverage for all Americans.

I say to the Democrats on the Hill, (Blue Dogs included).
You are going to destroy the Democratic Party if once again you
permit the Health Care Reforms to go down the drain. You can
plan on dropping Health Care as a Democratic Issue, if you
fail this time. You will never be believed again. Get everyone
covered. Stop the Republican-Lite Co-OP Talk. A Republican lite
plan will sink you and sink the country. The Conservatives
have put us in this ditch and do not ever forget it. If I sound
harsh, maybe I have just become disillusioned with what I see
happening. Put your Democratic BACKBONE in place and get moving.
I really mean this with respect, but it is time for tough love.

[clear eye]

3. Affordable single-payer vs. Industry-approved over-priced plan to pay for their rejects.

Is what the situation has come down to. That is because those offering a "public option" find it easy to back a plan the industry likes and still have the cover of supporting a "public option" and "health care reform" (whatever that means--is it like Soc. Sec. reform?).