Senator Harry Reid’s (D-NV) 2,074-page health care bill will increase family health insurance premiums by an average of ,100 a year, according to new figures released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).The CBO says that an average family plan will increase by 28% under the Reid bill – from ,000 per family to ,100 per family. In addition, a family of four with an income of ,000 will pay 17% more of its income for premiums and cost sharing in Reid’s government-run health care legislation.Reid’s bill will end up costing the American taxpayer .5 trillion and leave families with higher health care costs. “Reid’s legislative takeover of health care costs Americans .2 billion per page or .8 million per word!,” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “And what do we get for it? Socialized medicine and higher health care costs!”Senator Tom Coburn ...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now that that's over, Congress is back in session, and the Senate is tackling the health care reform issue.One of the things that is being discussed in reforming our health insurance system is allowing people to buy insurance plans from other states where they might be able to find less expensive plans. I'm not sure how this is supposed to work, and here's why.One reason the cost of plans is lower in some states than is others is the number of mandated services a health plan is required to cover. The more a plan is required to cover, the higher the cost of coverage. For example, California has 56 required services that each plan must cover.  By contrast, Idaho has 13 state mandates. We aren't at the top of the list by any means; ...

Democrats' strategy for merging health care reform bills began to unravel under growing attacks Wednesday, including unexpected criticism from Colorado's two Democratic senators.Final negotiations on merging the bills began in earnest Wednesday as congressional leaders spent more than eight hours behind closed doors at the White House using a process that bypasses a formal conference committee and cuts out Republican participation.They dug into a series of sticky issues that separate the two versions of the bill passed by the House and the Senate — including abortion, access to health insurance by illegal immigrants, and how to pay for the sweeping legislation, which will insure an estimated 37 million Americans over the next decade.A White House statement said they had made "significant progress in bridging the remaining gaps" between the bills.Republicans have been howling about the process for nearly two weeks — House ...

This Week in Health ReformRepublican Scott Brown’s victory over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) in the January 19 special election to fill the seat of the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D) might prove to be a game-changer for the health care reform debate. The loss of the 60th Democratic vote now robs Senate Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority. Last week, Democrats were rushing to wrap up a House/Senate agreement on the bill, likely due to reports that Coakley’s lead had diminished.Congressional leaders are still aiming to have the controversial points in the health care reform bill settled as soon as possible, so they can send the compromised bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for scoring. The CBO will then need 12 days to analyze the legislation. In addition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House, ...