A report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) on October 12, estimates that the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform legislation could add $1,700 to family health insurance premiums by 2013 and could raise family premiums by over $4,000 by 2019.

From the report:

America's Health Insurance Plans engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to examine the impact of four components of the health reform bill being proposed by the Senate Finance Committee as introduced. These include:

• Insurance market reforms and consumer protections that would raise health insurance premiums for individuals and families if the reforms are not coupled with an effective coverage requirement.
• An excise tax on employer-sponsored high value health plans (or "Cadillac plans") that in a few years could also raise premiums for some moderate value plans.
• Cuts in payment rates in public programs that could increase cost shifting to private sector businesses and consumers. These changes are expected to more than offset the potential reduction in cost shifting resulting from providing coverage to the uninsured.
• New taxes on health sector entities that are likely to be passed through to consumers.
• The increases in private health insurance coverage described above would be on top of the underlying growth in medical costs over the coming period.

 This analysis shows that the cost of the average family coverage is approximately $12,300 today and could be expected to increase to approximately:

• $15,500 in 2013 under current law and to $17,200 if these provisions are implemented.
• $18,400 in 2016 under current law and to $21,300 if these provisions are implemented.
• $21,900 in 2019 under current law and to $25,900 if these provisions are implemented.

Price Waterhouse Coopers. (2009).  Potential impact of health reform on the cost of private health insurance coverage.

Full report: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM116_pwc2.html

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released an in-depth analysis of the key components of the House Health Reform Bill released on October 29.

From the report:

The comprehensive health reform legislation that House Democratic leaders unveiled on October 29 would make significant progress in three critical areas: expanding health coverage and ensuring that such coverage is affordable, slowing the growth in health care costs, and instituting essential reforms in the health insurance market.

Moreover, the bill’s cost is more than fully offset; that is, the legislation would reduce budget deficits by $129 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill’s revenues and spending reductions would grow faster than the cost of the coverage provisions, according to CBO, which estimates that the bill would modestly reduce deficits in years after 2019 as well.

Policymakers could further improve the legislation by incorporating, at some stage of the legislative process, a provision to limit the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance such as a modified version of the excise tax on high-cost plans in the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform bill. This would further reduce health care cost growth.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2009). House Health Reform Bill Expands Coverage and Lowers Health Cost Growth, While Reducing Deficits. Park, Edwin, Solomon, Judith, Van de Water, Paul, Lueck, Sarah & Angeles, January.

Full report: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2973

On September 10, the Commonwealth Fund issued a report examining provisions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) (Financing News Pulse 2/6 edition).  The report examines provisions of the bill pertaining to outreach, enrollment, health quality, and measurement.  The report recommends: “giving funding priority to states that will adopt or maintain key simplifications, providing clarity on the relationship between express-lane procedures (which allow states to use relevant findings from other public programs when determining children’s enrollment eligibility) and error measurement, ensuring quality measures focus on priority health needs for children, and building quality measurement and improvement capabilities into electronic health information systems.” 

From the executive summary:

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 has the potential to transform children’s health care in the United States. The authors of this report analyze selected provisions of the legislation that involve outreach and enrollment, as well as child health quality and measurement. Using input from interviews with a range of stakeholders and a panel of experts, the report provides a set of recommendations for the federal government officials charged with implementing CHIPRA. Recommendations include: giving funding priority to states that will adopt or maintain key simplifications, providing clarity on the relationship between express-lane procedures (which allow states to use relevant findings from other public programs when determining children’s enrollment eligibility) and error measurement, ensuring quality measures focus on priority health needs for children, and building quality measurement and improvement capabilities into electronic health information systems, among others.

The Commonwealth Fund. (2009). Implementation choices for the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. Simpson, Lisa, Fairbrother, Gerry, Touschner,  Joseph, & Guyer, Jocelyn.

From the report: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2009/Sep/1315_Simpson_implementation_choices_for_CHIPRA_911.pdf

On September 21, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a report providing an overview of key issues surrounding current immigrant health care and proposed changes under the numerous health care reform proposals.

From the executive summary:

On September 21, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a report providing an overview of key issues surrounding current immigrant health care and proposed changes under the numerous health care reform proposals.

From the executive summary:

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a report examining proposed Medicare changes in the current bills, including provisions affecting MA plans, prescription drug coverage, and other payment reform. These proposed changes are also compared to previous legislative action affecting Medicare over the last fifteen years.

From the report:

Although Medicare is not the main focus of current health reform legislation, the primary proposals under consideration in the House (H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009) and the Senate (Senate Finance Committee Chairman’s Mark, America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009) include a number of provisions that would affect Medicare program expenditures. Medicare savings provisions in H.R. 3200 are projected to reduce program expenditures by $539 billion over the 10-year period from 2010 to 2019, while other provisions would increase Medicare expenditures by $320 billion, for a net reduction of $218 billion over 10 years, according to CBO.1 The Senate Finance Committee legislation is estimated to decrease net Medicare spending by $379 billion between 2010 and 2019, including $91 billion in additional spending and $470 billion in spending reductions.2 This policy brief considers the proposed 10-year Medicare savings in these health reform proposals in the context of other laws enacted during the last 15 years.

The Kaiser Family Foundation. (2009). Medicare savings in perspective: A comparison of 2009 health reform legislation and other laws in the last 15 years.

Full report: http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7983.pdf