Many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in health insurance premiums they have seen in recent years, the New York Times reports. Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15% for the coming year—double the rate of last year's increases. That would mean an annual premium that was $4,500 per employee in 2008 and $4,800 this year would rise to $5,500 in 2010.
Overall healthcare prices increased 0.2% in September and were 2.8% higher than a year ago, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS' Producer Price Indices, which measure average changes in selling prices received by domestic producers for their output, overall hospital prices increased 0.2% in September and were 3% higher than a year ago, while physician office prices increased 0.1% from August to September and were 2.6% higher than in September 2008.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) lashed out at Democrats and their plan to permanently adjust a Medicare doctor payment formula at a 10-year cost of nearly $250 billion that will be added to the federal deficit. Corker said the bill, sponsored by Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, is "designed to pass a quarter of a trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities on to future generations." Corker also accused the American Medical Association of prostituting itself by agreeing to support the Democrats' healthcare legislation in exchange for the formula fix.
Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage. Senate leaders plan to submit the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate as soon as October 26, and make the legislation public as soon as a day later, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The bill is expected to expand health coverage to tens of millions of Americans by giving low- and middle-income Americans subsidies to offset the cost of insurance, and expanding the Medicaid federal-state insurance program to cover a broader swath of the poor.
Several Democratic senators have voiced optimism that Congress would pass a healthcare bill containing at least the germ of a government-run insurance program, the New York Times reports. The senators' remarks came after Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, told President Obama that he would try to press for a government-run insurance program. With five healthcare bills under consideration in both branches of Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said that the House version of the legislation would include the public option, but other key senators have previously said it would be difficult to round up 60 votes needed to guarantee that the legislation would not be blocked by a likely Republican filibuster.
As the proposed $900 billion healthcare legislation is under debate, a critical unknown is whether people would comply with a mandate on individuals to carry insurance. The Senate Finance Committee set its maximum penalty for noncompliance at $750 per year, at the same time creating subsidies to help low-income Americans buy coverage. In the House, the penalty is based on income, but works out to about the same for a middle-class family. But many reform supporters say the finance panel's subsidies are too low, and insurers are pushing for larger penalties.