"Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy group for children, said, “We are very concerned that as the legislation evolves, insurance will become less and less affordable than under the original proposals.”
"Asked whether insurance would be affordable to everyone, Senator Snowe said: “That’s unknown." (complete NYT Article)
The most recent concerns about the bills moving through Washington, D.C. is that the cost of making sure that nearly every American has health insurance are expensive and their is wide disagreement about how those costs should be paid. Some want the rich to pay. Other want a wide ranging set of taxes to cover the expense. Some just want to roll back the cost by not providing the coverage to everyone. The groups that will be left in the cold as it is written today are the low-income working families that do not have insurance from their employer.
"All the bills offer some kind of assistance to lower-income people who do not get health benefits through the workplace. The bills would provide premium subsidies to millions of people and would establish limits on consumers’ out-of-pocket costs. But lawmakers and consumer groups say insurance could still be out of reach for many families with modest incomes who receive small subsidies or none at all." . . . . More
Just who will be covered is the biggest question out there. There are just not enough dollars in the revenue side of the bills to cover those families that make enough money to exceed subsidy limits.
"Richard J. Kirsch, the national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now, a consumer group, expressed concern. “If Congress sets the limit at 300 percent of the poverty level,” Mr. Kirsch said, “millions of middle-income families would not be able to buy insurance because they could not afford the premiums on their own.” . . . . More
As we look at the language in these bills I think we are going to find the same things that we find in every bill piece of legislation, surprises that we didn't expect to be there.
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