KSRM Radio: Murkowski Says Health Insurance Rates Will Go up with Reform
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski continues to oppose the current Health Care reform bill on the Senate floor. On Friday, Senator Murkowski took to the Senate floor again to explain a recent study by the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. She said that she asked ISER to review the numbers and this was part of the results of ISER’s findings. She said the findings show an increase in average premiums. She said it would be a twelve percent increase in premiums.
Alaska’s senior senator said that ISER was still analyzing the extent of the subsidies that may be available for Alaskans to help reduce those premium increases. But, she cited the premium increase estimate to counter Democrat claims that premiums would decrease under their bill.
Senator Murkowski said other findings of this ISER research showed that because Alaska is a high cost state, many more people in Alaska will become subject to the bill’s excise tax on health benefits sooner rather than later. She said ISER determined that the preliminary estimate is that roughly 50 percent of health plans in Alaska will be subject to the tax by the year 2016, compared to only 19 percent average in the rest of the Lower 48.
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Source: By Joe Nicks. Originally published by KSRM Radio on December 07, 2009
