On sick list: Elderly and the ill pay more under GOP health care reform bill

Michael Mcauliff

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WASHINGTON - Republican leaders are pleased their health reform plan would lower premiums on average up to 10% - and shave $68 billion from the federal deficit.

But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found an odd feature in the 230-page bill: Coverage would be more expensive for older people and folks who are sick.

And it would not bar insurers from excluding preexisting conditions.

Republicans spent months crafting the plan to compete with the Democrats' 1,990-page proposal, which includes a government-run insurance option.

The congressional analysts found the GOP effort would lower costs by bringing in more young, healthy people who need fewer services while raising rates for older, sickly people.

"Some provisions of the legislation would tend to decrease the premiums paid by all insurance enrollees, while other provisions would tend to increase the premiums paid by less healthy enrollees," the CBO analysis says.

"The pool of people without health insurance would end up being less healthy, on average, than under current law," the CBO says.

The GOP plan would add 3 million people to the insurance rolls by 2019, but the overall percentage of uninsured would stay the same.