Fine print: Finance bill may cause consumer sticker shock

Oct 30 2009

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby reports on how the fine print of the Senate Finance Committee's health bill could impact some lower- and middle-class consumers. Proponents of the measure "say the legislation will limit the amount that lower- and middle-income people must pay for health insurance to a maximum of 12 percent of their incomes. But there's a catch: The fine print shows that, over time, the premium costs could rise well beyond those caps. That's because the cost of coverage would shift from a percentage of income to a percentage of the premium, no matter how high the premiums go" (10/29). Read entire story.