Many middle-class Americans would still struggle to pay for health insurance despite efforts by President Barack Obama and Democrats to make coverage more affordable.
The legislation advancing in Congress would require all Americans to get insurance — through an employer, a government program or by buying it themselves. But new tax credits to help with premiums won't go far enough for everyone. Some middle-class families purchasing their own coverage through new insurance exchanges could find it out of reach.
Lawmakers recognize the problem.
"For some people it's going to be a heavy lift," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. "We're doing our best to make sure it's not an impossible lift."
Added Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine: "We have no certainty as to whether or not these plans are going to be affordable." Both are on the Senate Finance Committee, which finished writing a health care bill on Friday.
A new online tool from the Kaiser Family Foundation illustrates the predicament.
The Health Reform Subsidy Calculator provides ballpark estimates of what households of varying incomes and ages would pay under the different Democratic health care bills. The legislation is still a work in progress and the calculator only a rough guide. Nonetheless, the results are revealing.
A family of four headed by a 45-year-old making $63,000 a year is in the middle of the middle class. But that family would pay $7,110 to buy its own health insurance under the plan from the committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
The family would get a tax credit of $3,970 to help pay for a policy worth $11,080. But the balance due — $7,110 — is real money. Maybe it's less than the rent, but it's probably more than a car loan payment.
Kaiser's calculator doesn't take into account co-payments and deductibles that could add hundreds of dollars, even several thousand, to a family's total medical expenses. A Congressional Budget Office analysis estimates total expenses could average 20 percent of income for some families by 2016.
The issue of affordability "has been lurking in the background and is nowhere near resolved yet," said Kaiser's president, Drew Altman. "It's tricky because it doesn't take a lot of people to make affordability a political problem. It just takes some very visible and understandable cases."
At the root of the concerns is the push to cut the overall cost of health care overhaul legislation. Congress is trimming the budget for subsidies to meet Obama's target of $900 billion over 10 years — as the Baucus plan does. It means premiums will be higher than under earlier Democratic proposals.
Source: AP News
Try out the Health Reform Subsidy Calculator for yourself. Click here.
Here is some more news. Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on its bill on Monday.
The bill will not include a government-run insurance option for people without employer-provided coverage, unlike other panels' bills.
But it will mandate all Americans to get health insurance, and offer subsidies for the less well-off.
For decades, health reformers have tried to set up a universal healthcare system in America.
But if the finance committee votes to approve it on Monday, it will be the first time that a healthcare reform bill has been passed by all five of the congressional committees with jurisdiction over healthcare.
More hurdles
The bill still needs to negotiate a number of congressional hurdles before it can become law, however.
Once the bill leaves the finance committee, it will be combined with the senate health committee's bill, and go before the full Senate for a vote.
If it passes the Senate, it will be combined with the House of Representatives' version by a conference committee and go back before both houses for final approval.
All of the different versions of the bill are broadly similar in the scope of their reforms.
They would all toughen up regulations on health insurers, mandate all Americans to get insurance, offer subsidies to the less well-off and set up health insurance exchanges for people without employer-sponsored coverage, to help them choose between different options.
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