FixHealthCarePolicy

Lewin vs. Stark: How Many Americans Will End Up on the Public Plan?

Earlier this week, in conjunction with The Lewin Group, we released an analysis of the House health bill showing that if the public plan component became law:

– Approximately 103 million people would be covered under the new public plan and as a consequence about 83.4 million people would lose their private insurance. This would represent a 48.4 percent reduction in the number of people with private coverage.
– About 88.1 million workers would see their current private, employer-sponsored health plan go away and would be shifted to the public plan.
– Yearly premiums for the typical American with private coverage could go up by as much as $460 per privately insured person, as a result of increased cost-shifting stemming from a public plan modeled on Medicare.

Long-time single payer advocate Rep. Peter Stark (D-CA) has since responded to the Lewin study claiming “The Congressional Budget Office Trumps the Lewin Group.” The Lewin Group now has a point by point rebuttal of Stark. The is the text of the Lewin response, also available here: (more…)

Tags: Lewin Group, Pete Stark, single-payer health care