Overhaul Proposals Could Still Leave Gaps

For all the criticism lately that a health overhaul might go too far and cost too much, a close look at some of the legislation in the works shows it might not fulfill the promises of affordable coverage for plenty of Americans either.

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dykstranet/Flickr

Our pal Jordan Rau at Kaiser Health News takes a look at some families that are already having trouble paying for insurance out of their modest incomes and finds they could still be left behind.

"Under the House proposal, people receiving government subsidies could still end up spending 20 percent or more of their annual incomes on premiums, deductibles and co-insurance," Rau writes, citing estimates from the House Committee on Ways and Means obtained by Kaiser.

This Senate Finance Committee may trim the maximum family income that qualifies for a government subsidy to buy coverage to about $66,000 for a family of four from around $88,000, which would affect millions of Americans, Rau writes.

People on the low end of the income scale "have very little capacity to absorb significant health care costs," Peter Cunningham, of the Center for Studying Health System Change, tells Kaiser. So the overhaul plans many not help working families already on the edge.

Blast-From-The-Past Bonus: Kaiser dug up the now rather quaint message from President Nixon to Congress in 1974 seeking support for his "Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan," the failed overhaul of its day. Some of the health horrors then: the average cost of a day in the hospital was more than $100, and a baby delivery and customary care afterward cost nearly $1,000.