Mandates key to wider coverage: RAND
Modern Healthcare Daily Dose, February 16, 2010
Mandates would be essential to the success of insuring people under the Senate
health reform bill, according to an analysis released by the RAND Corp..
The public policy think tank, releasing analyses of both the House and Senate
reform bills plus a side-by-side comparison of the two bills, concluded that the
Senate bill would cut the number of uninsured Americans to 25 million by 2019 (a
53% decrease, based on status quo projections) and increase overall national
spending on healthcare by about 2% cumulatively between 2013 and 2019.
The legislation's individual mandate, however, would play the largest role in
increasing insurance coverage; it alone would reduce the number of uninsured
by 21.5 million, according to RAND. “In the absence of penalties for individuals
who do not purchase insurance, 10 million more people would be uninsured,” the
analysis stated.
Additionally, the bill's employer penalties and Medicaid expansions would reduce
the number of uninsured Americans by 1.5 million and 8 million, respectively. The
House bill would reduce the number of uninsured to 24 million, a 56% decrease,
but increase national health spending by 3.3% over the same period. On
average, “Both bills would result in higher health expenditures for the newly
insured,” according to RAND researchers.
The RAND research was funded by various sectors of the healthcare industry,
including hospital systems and insurers. — Jennifer Lubell