UNITED STATED

The Obama Administration hailed a congressional report that predicted most Americans will pay no more for insurance coverage under health-care legislation being debated in the U.S. Senate.

On average, 134 million Americans insured through large employers will see no rise in premiums and may pay 3 percent less than they would if Congress failed to pass a health-care overhaul plan, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said yesterday. Subsidies also will lower costs as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance.

The agency released its analysis as the Senate began debating the biggest revamp of U.S. health care in four decades. Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who requested the study, said it proves coverage can be expanded without boosting expenses for those already insured. Republican leaders said premiums will still rise for millions of Americans.

The numbers “came out better” for the Democratic leadership “than I would have expected them to,” said Robert L. Laszewski, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consultant to the insurance industry. Still, there’s a difference between lowering individuals’ insurance expenses and curbing the growth in health-care spending, he said.

The legislation will provide “welcome relief on costs,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a spokesman for President Barack Obama, on the White House blog. The proposal calls for spending $848 billion over 10 years to add more than 30 million people to insurance rolls.

Without Subsidies

The legislation would raise premiums by 10 to 13 percent for 14 million people who buy their own coverage and make too much for subsidies, the budget office found. The subsidies are limited to people making as much as four times the federal poverty guidelines, or $88,000 a year for a family of four.

This group would pay more because the legislation establishes minimum coverage requirements, the budget office said. Under the overhaul, insurers led by UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and WellPoint Inc., of Indianapolis, would be mandated to cover items such as maternity care and are banned from limiting lifetime or annual benefits.

The budget office found most who end up paying more will do so voluntarily, said Pfeiffer, the White House spokesman.

“Where the CBO does see premiums rising, it’s not because Americans are paying more for the same coverage,” he said. “It’s that they’re making a choice to purchase better plans that weren’t previously available.”

72 Percent of Services

People will buy policies paying 72 percent of covered services, instead of a minimum 60 percent under the legislation and typical now, the study found. Subsidies are tied to the 70 percent coverage.

The legislation, like a House-passed measure, would require that Americans get health insurance or pay a penalty and set up online exchanges for comparison shopping. The bills require insurers to accept new customers, regardless of preexisting conditions.

“What was the whole idea here?” said the No. 2 Republican leader in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a speech on the chamber’s floor. “The whole idea of health-care reform was to reduce the cost of health care.”

Senator Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, the top Republican in the Senate, said a â€œbill that is being sold as a way to reduce costs actually drives them up.â€

Laszewski, the consultant, said the study is only a partial victory for Democrats because the issue of runaway health-care costs is unresolved.

“If we don’t get costs down, those subsidies are going to be meaningless before too long,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nussbaum in New York anussbaum1@bloomberg.net.