A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examines the Patient's Choice Act (S. 1099 and H.R. 2520), a Republican proposal for health care reform introduced last summer by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). CBPP analyzes the proposal's effect on employer-sponsored health coverage, expansion of Medicaid coverage for people with low-income and state health insurance exchanges. The report finds that this proposal does not expand coverage sufficiently for the uninsured and reduces and weakens employer-sponsored coverage.

From the report:

With President Obama’s call for greater inter-party cooperation on health reform, and his announcement that the White House will hold a health care “summit” on February 25, Republican alternatives to the House- and Senate-passed Democratic plans are now receiving more attention. One such alternative is the Patients’ Choice Act, which Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced last summer and which is similar in many respects to the health provisions in Rep. Ryan’s more recent Roadmap for America’s Future. Unfortunately, the Coburn-Ryan plan would likely make comprehensive, affordable coverage less available to many who now have it while failing to significantly reduce the number of uninsured Americans.

Full report: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2879  

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2010). Coburn-Ryan health bill would jeopardize coverage for many, while failing to reduce the number of uninsured significantly. Angeles, J.