Washington, DC – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released an analysis of the impact the Senate Democrats’ $848 billion health care bill would have on Americans’ health insurance premiums.  According to the non-partisan experts at CBO, premiums would increase significantly – up to 13 percent – for millions of Americans under the Reid bill.  In contrast, earlier estimates from CBO noted the House Republican plan, the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act (H.R. 4038), would actually reduce premiums by up to 10 percent for many Americans while spending just 1/14th of what the Senate Democrats’ would spend.

Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI), who introduced the House Republican bill last month, said, “This confirms that you don’t have to spend $1 trillion and put the federal government in charge of your health care to create meaningful health care reform.  The top concerns Americans have when it comes to health care are cost, cost and cost.  The House Republican bill lowers costs, while both Senator Reid’s bill and Speaker Pelosi’s bill increase premiums but then try to hide the true cost to consumers by raising taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars and cutting Medicare by one-half trillion dollars.  The choice for the American people is simple: Republicans are offering more affordable insurance while Democrats propose a government-takeover of health care that increases monthly premium costs.”

Camp also noted that despite spending nearly 14 times as much as the House Republican bill, “Senate Democrats fall well short of the premium reductions achieved by the House Republican bill.  The Democrats spend nearly $1 trillion, we don’t, and yet we significantly reduce health insurance premiums to a greater degree for employees of small businesses and those buying health insurance on their own – the two groups everyone agrees are most likely to struggle to find affordable coverage.  That’s the difference between Republican health care reforms and the Democrats’ government expansion.  Simply put, the American people get a bigger bang for their buck under the Republican bill.”

In reaction to the CBO analysis Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Wally Herger (R-CA) said, “The CBO report makes it clear that the Democrats’ health care bill fails to line up with the American people’s priorities.  President Obama and Congressional Democrats have stated time and again that a key goal of health care reform is to reduce costs.  Rising costs are the number one obstacle to making quality health care accessible to all Americans.  Why would Democrats continue to push for a government takeover of health care that would, in fact, raise premiums by $2,100 for all Americans?  Their plan will mean even higher costs than if Congress took no action at all.  I believe that we must pursue reform that will lower health care costs for the American people without adding to our national debt.  I urge the President and Senate Democrats to abandon this harmful plan and adopt the Republican solution that will lower health care costs.”

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