More on the “affordability” of Senator Baucus’ plan
People keep asking me to give real numbers. Sure, I can say “families making 25% of the poverty line”, or say that “premiums cap out at 12% of income”, but what does that really mean?
And then along comes Nicholas Beaudrot to make things easy. Here is a chart showing what the monthly premiums are for families making different levels of money under the Massachusetts plan, Senator Baucus’ plan, and his plan with different tweaks that might come from the House or Senate reconciliation:
See that red bar The big one? That’s the monthly premium under Senator Baucus’ plan. As I’ve discussed before, the reason it’s more than the other plans is that he made the bill cheaper by reducing subsidies. So, yes, the CBO scores the bill as less expensive, but it achieves this by making working class families pay more out-of-pocket every month. How much more? Look at the chart. A family earning $61,000 a year will be paying almost $700 a month just in premiums; this doesn’t include co-pays, co-insurance, etc. It’s a lot of money, and we will be mandating them to pay it.
(h/t Matt Yglesias)
