According to new data that the Obama administration provided to U.S. House and Senate members on Monday, 1.3 million Michigan residents are uninsured. Should health care reform include a national insurance exchange, 459,000 state residents with individual policies would be eligible to get guaranteed coverage for less (Detroit Free Press, 11/24).
The data was released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.
According to the administration, the Senate’s health care reform bill that will be debated after the Thanksgiving recess will significantly reduce the number of uninsured people in the U.S. Highlights of the impact on Michigan include the following:
- 797,000 Michigan residents could qualify for subsidies to help with coverage
- The state’s 1.6 million seniors on Medicare will receive free preventive coverage
- A reinsurance plan to cover catastrophic claims could help 192,000 early retirees with business- or union-insurance plans for a few years.
- Approximately 279,000 Medicare beneficiaries who fall in the prescription drug benefit gap will pay about half as much for brand-name drugs.
Should health reform fail, the report projects that Michigan’s uninsured population would increase to 1.6 million by 2019. Click here to read the full Detroit Free Press story.