The Universal Health Care debate in favor of a single-payer system may be over before it even begins based on the Office of Fiscal Analysis’ newest cost estimate for the proposal.
Senate bill 1371 would cost a whopping $11.8 billion to $17.7 billion, according to OFA’s estimate. But the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut alleges the information in the OFA report is misleading.
The Universal Health Care Foundation said based on research by health economists at the Urban Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the single-payer legislation:
Everyone would be covered at a savings of almost $1 billion, employer payments would go down by $1.4 billion, household payments in premiums would go down by $400 million, state payments would increase by $90 million, the state would receive back from the federal government almost $1.5 billion in Medicaid and SCHIP money, state residents would see an increase of $1.4 billion in wages and salaries, average premiums would go down from $4,900 to $4,200 (14%), and average premiums plus other out-of-pocket costs would go down from $5,600 to $4,700 (17%).
The bill will create a commission to arrange and procure health insurance policies for Connecticut residents under the age of 65. It passed the Insurance and Real Estate Committee last month 12 to 7.
It should be noted that the funding mechanism for the proposal was stripped from the bill before the vote in the Insurance Committee.
Click here to read the cost analysis and here to read the summary of the legislation. And here is the statement from the Universal Health Care Foundation regarding Tuesday’s Hartford Courant article on the report.
