Provision Under Consideration for Merged Senate Health Bill Would Harm Needy Families: — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

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By January Angeles and Judith Solomon

It Will Cut Subsidies to the Near-Poor to Help Fund Larger Subsidies for Families Farther Up the Income Scale

A family of three earning $27,465 a year before taxes — that is, at 150 percent of the poverty line — would have to pay $1,318 a year for health coverage under a proposal that Senate negotiators are considering for a merged health reform bill that they would bring to the Senate floor. This is more than such a family would pay under either the Senate Finance Committee health bill or the bill that the Senate Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved, and represents a large amount for families that often have difficulty paying the rent and utilities and putting food on the table.

This $1,318 premium charge, which would represent 4.8 percent of the family’s income, is nearly five times the $275 that the family would pay under the Senate HELP bill and $82 more than the $1,236 it would pay under the Finance bill.
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