Ezra Klein at the Washington Post passes along a new academic paper by MIT health economist Jon Gruber. Mr. Gruber has looked at the health care proposals being considered by Congress and has found that the reforms will lower insurance premiums.
One of those states is Massachusetts, which passed health-care reform similar to the one contemplated at the federal level in mid-2006. The major aspects of this reform took place in 2007, notably the introduction of large subsidies for low-income populations, a merged nongroup and small group insurance market, and a mandate on individuals to purchase health insurance. And the results have been an enormous reduction in the cost of nongroup insurance in the state: The average individual premium in the state fell from $8,537 at the end of 2006 to $5,143 in mid-2009, a 40 percent reduction, while the rest of the nation was seeing a 14 percent increase.You can read the rest of Mr. Gruber's paper here.(MS Word document)
