Maureen Groppe has a news story about a Kaiser Family Foundation study on the impact of the health care reform bill. The value of these reports is going to be marginal, I think, if they don’t (and I’m not sure how they could at this point) get to the bottom line of “what is this going to cost me and how much health care am I getting for my dollar.” Gov. Daniels will, no doubt, seize on on a projected increase of $500 – $900 million for the state of Indiana. But, if I’m paying more tax dollars to Indiana, but my health insurance premiums flatline instead of continuing to skyrocket, I’m not going to care that the money is getting funneled through the State instead of Anthem – (the state is likely to rake less off the top if it comes down to it). What I care about is that my health care costs become more manageable or, at the least, become unmanageable less quickly.
And I’m not sure how good a job these reports are going to do in helping folks decide how good or bad a deal it is for them, personally.
I will say this about reports of a slightly different type. As an employer the list of reports that we will have to fill out in order to comply with the reform is ridiculous.