"Many employers would almost certainly drop coverage result of Coburn-Ryan HCR alternative."

[Clio the Leo]

(OP title from http://twitter.com/CenterOnBudget/status/9481211820 )

Coburn-Ryan Health Bill Would Jeopardize Coverage for Many, While Failing To Reduce the Number of Uninsured Significantly
By January Angeles
Revised February 12, 2010

Summary

With President Obama’s call for greater inter-party cooperation on health reform, and his announcement that the White House will hold a health care “summit” on February 25, Republican alternatives to the House- and Senate-passed Democratic plans are now receiving more attention. One such alternative is the Patients’ Choice Act, which Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced last summer and which is similar in many respects to the health provisions in Rep. Ryan’s more recent Roadmap for America’s Future.<1> Unfortunately, the Coburn-Ryan plan would likely make comprehensive, affordable coverage less available to many who now have it while failing to significantly reduce the number of uninsured Americans.
Plan Would Significantly Erode Employer-Based Coverage

The bill (S. 1099 and H.R. 2520) would eliminate the main federal tax subsidy for employer-sponsored insurance — the income-tax exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance — and replace it with a refundable tax credit ($2,290 for individuals and $5,710 for families) that people could use to purchase coverage.<2> Many employers would almost certainly drop coverage as a result: since individuals could get the tax credit regardless of whether they obtained their coverage through their employer or on their own, many employers likely would conclude they no longer needed to provide coverage. (In contrast, capping rather than eliminating the tax exclusion, as the Senate Finance Committee has considered, can maintain substantial incentives for employers to continue to offer coverage.)
Even employers who wished to continue offering coverage might be unable to do so. As explained below, the new tax credit would encourage younger, healthier employees to opt out of employer-based plans, leaving older and sicker workers in the employer insurance pools and thereby driving up the cost per beneficiary of employer coverage. Many employers might ultimately conclude they could not afford to continue offering subsidized coverage.

more...
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2879

[joeybee12]

1. Wow! Crappy proposed legislation from Repuke-li-cants!

Who woulda thunk it?

[Jennicut]

2. In other words, take this tax credit and pray to the holy God of health insurance that

your employer doesn't drop your insurance. I don't like those odds. I am not too old, yet, at 34. But I am not completely healthy.