Health Reform
Private Health Coverage Unstable for Middle Class
"In about one-quarter of middle-income families with private health coverage, a family member lost coverage at some point between 2004 and 2007, analysis of Census Bureau survey data reveals. Nearly all of these family members ended up uninsured, often for several months…. [T]hese problems have almost certainly worsened due to the recession.
"Enactment of comprehensive health reform that provides affordable, meaningful insurance options, particularly for those losing access to employer-based coverage, would help protect many such families in the future from the financial and health consequences of being uninsured." Read more
Related:
- Reform Essential to Cut Deficits, Slow Health Costs
- Using Reconciliation to Enact Reform Is Not a Misuse of the Process
More: Health Reform Analyses
The Ryan Budget Plan
"The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee — released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.
"The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts… At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families, privatize a substantial portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The plan would replace these health programs with a system of vouchers whose value would erode over time and thus would purchase health insurance that would cover fewer health care services as the years went by.
"All in all, the Ryan Roadmap charts a radical course that, if they understood it, few Americans likely would want to follow."
Read more: Executive Summary (4pp.) | Full Analysis (17pp.)
Related: Response to Ryan’s Criticism of the Center’s Analysis
- More:
- Federal Budget Analyses
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Obama Budget Includes Major Plan to Preserve Needed Affordable Housing
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Sessions-McCaskill Amendment to Establish Binding Discretionary Funding Limits Poses Numerous Problems and Is Ill-Advised
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Social Security Does Not Need a “Bailout”
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A Formula for Decline: Lessons from Colorado for States Considering TABOR
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A Formula for Decline: Lessons from Colorado for States Considering TABOR
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Center in the News
NJ Not Alone in Facing Deep Financial Problems
Gannett News
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Bad All Over
WNYC Radio's The Brian Lehrer Show
March 16, 2010
Fiscal Reality Dawning on Legislators
Witchita Eagle
March 15, 2010
Star Tribune Editorialists Ignore Skeptics on Rep. Ryan's Budget Plan
MinnPost
March 15, 2010
In the blogs: Saving Ryan’s Privatization
The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com
March 14, 2010
Video: How High Will Your Taxes Go?
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