They call this "Reform"

Insuring Resources Commentary

Details on the Republican's "Health care reform" bill. I put that in quotes because calling this reform is a slam on the english language.

The assessment from the Cngressional Budget Office conculdes that the proposal would barely dent the ranks of the uninsured.

The measure would cover 3 million additional people at a cost of $60billion through 2019, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The Democrats' bill, by comparison, would cover far more -- 36million additional Americans -- at a much higher cost -- $1.055 trillion through 2019, the CBO has said, while adding nothing to the deficit.

The bill leaves out a number of the key features of the Democrats' 1,990-page legislation, such as new requirements for employers to insure their employees and for nearly all Americans to purchase insurance. It also doesn't block insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions, as Democrats would do.

Instead, Cong. Boehner, the bills author, said the Republicans would encourage creation of insurance pools for high-risk individuals and take other steps to ease their access to coverage. By the way, on average those pools charge premiums equal to 130% in the individual market. Gee thanks, Cong. Boehner that'll help!

Many of the most respected health care voices in the GOP have historically treated the idea of eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions as an obvious plank in any reform effort. Apparently there's a little dissension on this issue. Here aere three examples:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who is widely regarded as one of the sharpest health care policy wonks in Republican circles, told MSNBC back in May that consumers needed to have "access to affordable coverage, regardless of [their] pre-existing condition." Representative Dave Camp (R-Mich), meanwhile, has insisted that Republicans "must address" the issue of pre-existing conditions. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) has called for the creation of a "straightforward national plan that covers pre-existing conditions."

Instead, the Republican plan increases incentives for people to use health savings accounts, caps non-economic jury awards in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, provides various incentives to states with the aim of driving down premium costs and allows health insurance to be sold across state lines.

By enhancing HSAs the GOP is putting more health care costs on the backs of its citizens. Since the bill is still in hiding and not viewable by the public its hard to assess the details.


**** This material was compiled from several sources including CNN, the AP, the Huffington Post and others.****