The “Public” insurance plan’s huge market share
April 13th, 2009 | by Brian Schwartz |Talk about unhealthy competition. From Heritage:
A new study released today by the Lewin Group, one of the most well-respected health care consultancies in Washington, gives new estimates on “The Cost and Coverage Impacts of a Public Plan” like the one being considered by President Obama and the congressional leadership. The Lewin Group says that “If the public plan is opened to all employers…at Medicare payment levels we estimate that about 131.2 million people would enroll in the public plan. The number of people with private health insurance would decline by 119.1 million people. This would be a two-thirds reduction in the number of people with private coverage (currently 170 million people).”
The study also examined what the proposed plan might do to provider reimbursement rates. Lewin says that if current Medicare payment rates were to be used for a public plan option, physicians would see their net income drop by $33 billion dollars, and hospitals would see their revenue fall by $36 billion.
Update August 8:
An updated version says
about 88.1 million workers would shift from private employer insurance to the public
plan.
Technical Points of Clarification on The Lewin Group’s Analysis of
the American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 compares the Lewin Group’s estimates with that of the Congressional Budget Office.
