On Christmas Eve 2009, the U.S. Senate passed a mammoth health care bill that would dramatically expand the role of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Why should Americans care about this? OPM is the government agency that runs the federal civil service and also administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and does a decent job at both. But with its new powers, OPM would no longer merely act as referee in the annual competition among private health plans trying to attract federal workers. OPM would become the official sponsor of at least two national health plans (read: public option) that would compete against private plans in every state in the country. The possibility of OPM's new role opens up a near-endless array of questions and concerns. In a panel discussion on January 20, 2010, hosted by The Heritage Foundation, four health policy experts, including three former OPM directors, address some of them.
Both of the current House and Senate health care bills disproportionately burden younger, healthier Americans with higher insurance premiums. To ensure that these young people buy health insurance anyway, Congress has decided to nudge them into purchasing insurance by enforcing a penalty for those who fail to buy coverage. Heritage Foundation analysts estimate that many under age 35 will opt out of buying insurance altogether, choosing to pay the penalty instead. If younger workers do not join the risk pool, insurers will be forced to raise premiums even higher to cover higher-benefit payouts to older people. Either way, younger Americans will have less disposable income which means they are able to buy and save less a lose-lose situation.