What Percent of Americans will Universal Health Insure?

Published: Thu 19 Nov 2009

Lucas Eichmann - Contributing Writer

When the Senate finally reveals its version of the health care reform bill, the biggest concern will be the price tag. However, an equally important figure will be how many Americans will have medical coverage under the new law.

The health care reform bills circulating in Senate committees so far would provide insurance to fewer Americans than the final version of the bill passed by the House recently. Senate leaders have been modifying the bill in an attempt to boost that number. Hospitals and health insurers have admonished politicians that if the final Senate bill does not extend coverage to more Americans than did its earlier versions, health insurance premiums will skyrocket and health care industry promises to trim costs may falter.

President Obama would like health care reform legislation to cost less than $900 billion over the next ten years, and most politicians expect the final Senate bill to fit into that budget. Most of the money spent will be devoted to the extension of insurance coverage. But how many Americans have to be covered to make that spending worth the cost?

The health care reform bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee, which is anticipated to form the basis of the final bill, would offer health insurance to 94 percent of legal residents of the United States, an increase from the 83 percent of legal residents insured currently. The percentage of Americans insured by the House-approved bill is slightly more, at 96 percent.

About 25 million people would not have health insurance under the Senate Finance Committee's bill, with roughly one-third of those residents illegal immigrants.

"Have we really gotten the bang for the buck?" questioned Mark McClellan, former chief of Medicare and Medicaid under President George W. Bush. "It's a concern."

Congressional Democrats agree that they would like as many Americans as possible to receive affordable health insurance. The health care reform bills expand the Medicaid program to the poor and provide tax credits to lower-income households to mitigate the cost of buying health insurance. With the House bill, that benefit will apply to a family of four making $88,000 per year.

All versions of the bill levy fines against those who do not purchase health insurance and are determined to be able to afford coverage. In the House bill, this penalty is up to 2.5 percent of the taxpayer's income, while Senate bills have flat-rate penalties, some of which kick in over an extended period of time.