Proposed Insurance Reforms Could Create a Much Different Marketplace

Plus, in 2013, a public insurance option would be established, along with the health insurance exchange in which individuals without coverage and small employers would be eligible to purchase coverage. The exchange would be administered by a health choices commissioner, under the House bill, who would have authority to set standard for participating plans, auditing, and enforcing insurance market reforms.

As for payment rates, the Congressional Budget Office on Monday noted in a memo that the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay for a reference plan in 2013 would range from 1.5% for those with income less than or equal to 133% of the federal poverty level to 12% for those with income equal to 400% of the federal poverty level. (A reference plan refers to the premiums equal to the average of the three lowest cost "basic" plans, as defined in the bill.

Those with income below 150% of the federal poverty level would generally be eligible for Medicaid and ineligible for subsidies within the exchanges.