Fresh off a new Congressional Budget Office scoring of their health care reform bill that drops the price tag from $1 trillion to just over $600 billion, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee members have returned to marking up the Affordable Health Choices Act with renewed enthusiasm -- at least from committee Democrats.

“We are pleased to report that the CBO has scored it at $611.4 billion over 10 years, with the new coverage provisions scored at $597 billion -- a significant reduction from earlier estimates,” said Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) in a joint letter to committee members.  

The new score comes with the addition of provisions for a “strong, national public option” and an employer mandate requiring employers to pay 60% of employees’ insurance costs or contribute $750 a year per full-time employee.

Diane Boyle, Association of Health Insurance Advisors executive vice president, doesn’t share the senators’ enthusiasm. She points out that $750 won’t cover 60% of some private insurance options, creating a cost shift from private insurance into a public program.

“Really they’re not finding significant savings,” Boyle says. “They’re shifting the cost over to the employer. I think the employer community is going to be up in arms over it … Once you factor in the employer mandate that’s how they got the reduced scoring.”

Although AHIA is not necessarily opposed to an employer mandate, Boyle “would rather find the savings elsewhere in reforming the system rather than shifting the costs to the employer.”

Meanwhile, AHIA is gearing up along with the National Association of Health Underwriters, Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America for their July 15 Washington, D.C. Fly-In.

The associations are co-sponsoring the day of Capitol Hill meetings for brokers and advisers to speak directly with their state representatives on health care reform. “We still maintain support for reforming the system, we’re just now starting to see some things laid on the table with a little more detail and we want to make sure we get the details right,” says Boyle.

The latest count puts attendance at 930 people, says Janet Trautwein, executive vice president and CEO of NAHU, “quite a few more” than they were expecting. A quick non-scientific poll by EBA of a dozen brokers revealed most responders think it’s an important event and know at least one person going, but won’t be able to make it themselves due to scheduling conflicts.  

However, Rae Bunce, an employee benefit specialist with The Benefits Group of New England, says she wouldn’t miss the opportunity to sit down with her local Vermont representatives to let them know the concerns she’s hearing from the small groups she meets with on a daily basis. Many don’t have access to the Internet and she fears how they would be impacted if brokers were out of the picture and they were left to direct their questions to Web sites or hotlines.

“To cut out all brokers so they don’t have any representation here, I think would actually hurt the businesses in Vermont … I think it’s a great opportunity to go down, you have to have the voices be heard,” she says. “Whether you make a difference or not, you have to voice something or you’re just going along with the status quo.”

For more on the updated numbers from the HELP committee, listen to our podcast as Dodd and other committee Democrats discuss the bill. On a lighter note, if their ability to handle a press conference Q&A is any indication of government effectiveness, health care reform may be in trouble after all!