Washington, DC – Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI), who played a key role in developing the Republicans’ health care bill, touted today an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing health insurance premiums for many families would be nearly $5,000 more expensive under Democrat reforms compared to the Republican plan.  Americans have repeatedly said their top priority in the health care reform debate is lowering the cost of health coverage.

Camp issued the following statement in reaction to the CBO analysis:

“Republicans listened to the American people who are saying loud and clear: lower health care costs,” said Camp.  “This bill will significantly reduce health care premiums and insure millions of Americans without raising taxes or spending $1 trillion, which is what the Democrats do.

“Americans’ health care is too important and too complex to risk on Democrats’ 2,000-page gamble.  Instead, Republicans are promoting a step-by-step approach to comprehensive health care reform, and the first step is to make health insurance affordable for families, affordable for small businesses and affordable for America. 

“Unlike the Democrat plan that increases taxes almost immediately but delays reforms for several years, the Republican plan will immediately begin to lower costs.

“With this bill, Republicans are proving you can lower health care costs without raising taxes, without cutting Medicare, without spending over $1 trillion and without putting the federal government in charge of your health care decisions.” 

NOTE:  Earlier this week, the CBO estimated that in 2016 the “average of the three lowest-cost basic plans” under the House Democrats’ bill would be $15,000 for a family.  Today, CBO estimated that the Republican bill would lower premiums in the individual market up to 8 percent, the small group markets by up to 10 percent, and the large group market by up to 3 percent.  According to CBO average health care premiums in the individual market would be $11,000 in 2016 under current law.  An 8 percent reduction in those costs would mean a premium of $10,120 – nearly $5,000 less expensive than the cheapest Democrat plan, which CBO says is unlikely to attract many families, meaning average premiums would be even higher in the Democrats’ exchange.

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