Massachusetts health care scholars who worked on the groundbreaking state and federal health reform laws released findings on Thursday that they say show Republican candidate Mitt Romneys health care policies would raise costs and lower the number of people insured.

Middle class families would pay substantially more out of pocket, Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a conference call.

Pollack began the call by saying the group is a 501 (c) 4 and non-partisan. However, the studys numbers were broken out for three battleground states Ohio, Florida and Virginia. Pollack said the breakdown was made due to the number or reporters listening in from those states.

Josh Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute, was skeptical of the groups conclusions and said the organization has not laid out the models developed by MIT professor Jonathan Gruber that were used to arrive at the conclusions.

Obviously Grubers model is a black box. Hes never fully explained the assumptions that hes making, said Archambault. Pioneer has Romney ties including former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and campaign adviser Beth Myers, who both serve on Pioneers board.

While the scholars that wrote the study acknowledged they were basing their conclusions on a composite of Romneys public statements rather than a detailed health care plan endorsed by Romney, they said the major factors such as repeal of the Affordable Care Act have been addressed in the candidates statements.

The most important things Romney has talked about you can model, said Pollack.

The conclusions of the Families USA study were not flattering toward Romney as the former Massachusetts governor aims to defeat President Barack Obama.

Pollack said that by the end of the next presidents term, in 2016, Romneys health care policies would result in out-of-pocket annual health care payments of $11,481 for families buying non-group health care insurance, which they say is nearly twice the payments under Obamacare. According to the study, the number of uninsured across the country will fall to 25.3 million under Obamacare but would rise to 67.2 million their interpretation of Romneys plan.

Archambault raised potential health cost drivers under Obamacare, which he said the Families USA study did not address. Archambault said under the ACA, employers might be tempted to drop their employees from company plans, telling them that they will receive a raise but will have to use a health connector plan.

Continued here:

Health care scholars critique Romney, draw skepticism