The Money Saved by the Senate Bill

Posted on 12/21/2009 at 11:41 am by Bob Cesca

Jon Cohn lays out the insurance cost savings for working and middle class families. You should definitely read the whole write-up here, but meanwhile here’s the chart:

cohn_hcr_savings.jpg

Some of these numbers are staggering — both the repulsive costs of the status quo and the consequential savings via the reform bill. A family of four in the $48K annual salary range will see their premiums reduced from $12,000 to $3,600. That’s impressive. For example, the $8,400 in savings will pay for a semester of college tuition (and then some) at a Pennsylvania state university.

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  • brutlyhonest

    Bet this airs on faux any minute now ….

  • indyinwc

    That’s interesting. Do these savings apply to employers who pay employees insurance or just those who pay for their own? How about single folks?

  • indyinwc

    No, you won’t see savings on Faux News, only the oppressive mandates being fostered on freedom loving Americans by the socialist democrats.

  • camel54

    Yes, but you’re missing the point, Bob, and that is that the bit of good this bill does for some of the people is outweighed by what it doesn’t do for all of the people–and THAT is Obama’s fault. That and global warming and cancer. And being a given that everything is Obama’s fault, which it is, it means he is a man of unimaginable power, which means that though we like to lament that we voted him into office only so he could fail to use his vast power, we never had a choice. He used his powers over us to be voted in to not use his power. And that, my friend, is the point.

  • ceu

    Indyinwc – Small business employers will get substantial tax credits to help pay for health insurance for employees (I haven’t yet figured out how non-profits will benefit) and my understanding is that those will kick in almost immediately (I could be wrong on that)

  • eljefejeff

    So people will save money and the deficit will be reduced? Well then obviously the only solution is to KILL THE BILL.

  • eve

    on Political Wire:Public Option Creator Backs BillJacob Hacker, the intellectual father of the “public option” — now eliminated from the Senate’s health care reform bill — writes that it would “be tempting for me to side with Howard Dean and other progressive critics who say that health care reform should now be killed. It would be tempting, but it would be wrong.”

  • http://exoevolution exoevolution

    Do these so-called savings “begin” in 2014 – FOUR years from now???What about the pain & suffering that will happen until 2014? And that’s assuming that the corporate owned politicians won’t gut this current “band-aid” by 2014!This can NOT truly be called Health-Care “reform”, but instead Profit-Care “continued”!

  • staci

    I was thinking about this bill this morning and I have a couple questions. Of the 30 million people that will now get help, what percentage of these folks are currently unemployed and will qualify for Medicaid? Additionally, are the kids that will now get coverage included in that 30 million? Does this coverage kick in during 2010? And finally, to me Medicaid is single payer, so on some level didn’t we win?

  • camel54

    exo, some provisions of the bill kick in immediately, but for those that don’t, one thing to keep in mind is that SCHIP has been expanded under Obama to help with children in low-income homes and also the president just allocated $600M to health clinics across the country in order to help meet the needs of the underserved. The VA budget changes signed by Obama will also help with the health care treatments for vets going forward from this point.We all agree the bill isn’t ideal, but if it was killed, those things set for implementation in four years would not be happening at all, right? So which is worse?

  • Eric

    Thanks for the chart and link, Bob. This, simply put, looks wonderful to me. My situation isn’t covered here (individual) but it’s going to be great to click onto the exchange and get group rates on top of any subsidies I might qualify for.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/38911730@N05/3865216182/ bjritz

    According to the chart I will have to pay $2,000 more in premiums and $3,400 more in out of pocket max when this kicks in than I will begin paying as of Jan 1, 2010.Que bueno! No, que lastima!

  • ceu

    BJ – those are maximums, not mandated costs.Another provision that will kick in immediately is people with pre-existing conditions & no insurance will be able to get insurance. Immediately.

  • idabamaho

    “A family of four in the $48K annual salary range will see their premiums reduced from $12,000 to $3,600.”…and the difference goes to the Health Care Mafia as you put it just a week ago. How is that savings overall? We are simply taking tax dollars and paying the high premiums which will continue to skyrocket.

  • Bull Schmitt

    I’m pretty much off the ledge, but I’d like to see the same chart with a 55-year old Head of Household. To see what effect it has on people that are going to be charged two or three times the premium of the youngest customers. (As I hear is provided in the Senate bill.)It would either answer that criticism, or point out an area that deserves attention in the conference committee.