A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report finds that the Senate health reform bill will make insurance from 10% to 13% more expensive. That’s an extra $300 for an individual and $2,100 for a family by 2016. Still, the estimate is probably way too optimistic.

As Gene Steuerle pointed out the other day, over the course of a year more than one third of all workers suffer a bout of unemployment, leave the workforce, enter it, partially retire, move to part-time employment, get married, get divorced, have a child, or have a child leave home. And as my Health Alert pointed out, the bills before Congress have no mechanism for dealing with the problem of short-term uninsurance. Those losing coverage who are sick will quickly sign up for new insurance. Those who are healthy will wait until the next open enrollment period. And they may wait much longer.

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