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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Obamacare, Insurance Rates and the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Report


Yesterday it was reported that PriceWaterhouseCoopers released a report showing the impact of Obamacare on health insurance premiums and The Politico has the 26 page PDF report up now.

The report is titled "Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage."

As explained on page #4, 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.


If the graph they created doesn't make the point, they have also provided the actual projections from the plan on the table, so to speak, right now.

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.

This analysis shows that the cost of the average single coverage is $4,600 today and could be expected to increase to:

**$5,800 in 2013 under current law and to $6,400 if these provisions are implemented.

**$6,900 in 2016 under current law and to $7,900 if these provisions are implemented.

**$8,200 in 2019 under current law and to $9,700 if these provisions are implemented.


That all came from the executive summary at the beginning of the report. It is all broken down starting at page #8.

Read the whole report.

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