Looking at the process used by the Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) to derive the Health Insurance Claims Assessment (HICA) legislation revenue estimate, health expenditures in Michigan are close to $80.0 billion. Once out-of-pocket costs and Medicare costs are subtracted (as Medicare rarely covers children), the expenditure base is closer to $50.0 billion. The $255.0 million figure represents about 0.5% of total health care expenditures. Therefore, a reasonable conclusion is that implementation of the bills would increase health insurance costs by a maximum of 0.5% and likely less than that.

Research in other states resulted in similar conclusions, with an estimated cost increase of $50 per policy per year reflected in analyses in South Carolina and Wisconsin, with a significantly lower cost estimate of $5 to $20 per policy per year in Indiana. These estimates correspond to rate increases of 0.1% to 0.5%.

In 2011, the SFA estimated that paid health claims for State and local government in Michigan are about $3.6 billion in State and local  revenue. If the 0.5% figure is correct and none of the State and local entities are self-insured, then the legislation would increase State and local expenditures by $18.0 million per year, with about half of those costs accruing to school districts. Given the general belief that at least half of the public employees in the State work for entities that self-insure, the most useful estimate is that the legislation would increase State and local expenditures by $9.0 million per year.

The 2010 Lame duck Senate Majority Repubs rejected the idea of bringing the mandate to a vote as it's a bad economic idea.  Nothing has changed in 2012.  Better coordinated effort this time, Lt. Calley?  Indeed.  Membership certainly has its privileges with regard to 0.15% of the state population.