Democrats Pwn Health Care

I have been researching the current healthcare reform bills, and unfortunately for Republicans, their bill got out. The Congressional Budget office just released their analysis of the GOP's alternative bill this week (here is the link to it). So now, if you want to argue the Democrat's bill is not perfect (here is the CBO's analysis of that), the Republican's just made it look really good. Some important quotes from the analysis of Republican's bill: "By 2019, CBO and JCT estimate, the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be reduced by about 3 million relative to current law, leaving about 52 million nonelderly residents uninsured. The share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage in 2019 would be about 83 percent, roughly in line with the current share. CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the amendment’s insurance coverage provisions would increase deficits by $8 billion over the 2010–2019 period." 3 million? How shameful. That hardly keeps up with population growth. The Democrat's bill, according to CBO, should help about 36 million. From the Effects on Premiums section: "In the large group market, which represents nearly 80 percent of total private premiums, the amendment would lower average insurance premiums in 2016 by zero to 3 percent compared with amounts under current law, according to CBO’s estimates" A nice way to reduce total spending, but hardly a way to say you are making a positive difference. Things are not changing things for a significant majority of the population. I think this is just a fancy way of preserving the status quo. Illustrative Examples When you compare Net Changes in Deficit of both bills, the Republican's is estimated to reduce the deficit by about $68 billion. The Democrats is estimated to reduce is by $104 billion. A considerable difference. So now what? Since by reading this you just became more well informed than most of the population, you should call your local representative and express what you support.