By Scott Hensley

This is health overhaul?

The Congressional Budget Office did its number-crunching magic on the House Republicans' health proposal and found that the bill wouldn't cost much--or put much of a dent in the ranks of the uninsured.

House Minority Leader John Boehner.

House Minority Leader John Boehner offers a "Republican Solution" to health overhaul. (Harry Hamburg/AP)

Assuming the Republicans prevail and their bill became law before the end of this year, the CBO figures about 3 million more people would have health coverage a decade from now. That would leave about 52 million nonelderly people in this country uninsured in 2019.

The bottom line, from CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's blog, "The share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage in 2019--83 percent--would be roughly in line with the current share."

Admittedly, the GOP proposal, by design, focuses more on cost and the deficit. It does better by those measures. The bill would trim $68 billion from the federal budget deficit over the decade ending in 2019. The net cost of the insurance expansion over the same period: $8 billion.

The CBO give the Republican bill points in a couple of other areas.

Lots of people with insurance would pay less for it. In the small group market, for instance, the CBO estimates premiums would fall 7 percent to 10 percent by 2016. Individual policies would also cost less--about 5 to 8 percent. And, those insured in the large group market would see premium hold steady or drop by about 3 percent.

And the Republican's proposals to curb medical malpractice would cut health spending by $41 billion and increase revenue by $13 billion, the CBO estimates.

categories: Health Overhaul

8:45 - November 5, 2009

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