Health Plan Raises Costs for 15%, Officials Say
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WASHINGTON — Administration officials stressed Sunday that only about 15% of Americans, mostly the young, would pay more for health care under President Clinton’s proposed reforms.
Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala told a Senate panel last week that 40% of currently insured families would pay higher premiums under the Clinton plan.
Senators warned that health care reform would be all but impossible to sell if nearly half of all American families came out losers.
But in separate TV appearances Sunday, White House health care adviser Ira Magaziner and Budget Director Leon E. Panetta called the 40% figure “misleading” because it counted only premium payments, not total health care costs.
In fact, they said, most of the 40% would gain more in health care benefits than they would lose in higher premiums. They said that only about 15% of Americans would show a net loss.
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