| | Senator to introduce measure to require health insurance for all Americans
 Senate Finance Committee Chairman and Montana's Democratic senator Max Baucus will introduce a sweeping healthcare measure today intended to ensure healthcare coverage for all Americans.
The move is short on financial specifics. But its introduction will immediately move healthcare into the spotlight, putting pressure on President-Elect Barack Obama to bump medical coverage to the top of his priority list. Asked in an interview four days before the election what would be the priorities of his incoming Administration, Obama has named healthcare third after the economic crisis and energy independence.
Baucus' healthcare proposal differs from Obama's in one key respect: he would mandate all Americans to have health insurance. In that respect it is more like Sen. Hillary Clinton's primary proposals.
In addition to mandating coverage, the bill would bar insurance companies from charging higher premiums or denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions. The measure enjoins businesses to provide coverage to their employees.
"Under the Baucus plan, most employers would be required to offer insurance to their workers or pay into a fund, with the contribution based on the size of the firm and its annual revenue," the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "Small employers would get a tax credit if they offer insurance, with the size of the credit based on the size of the company and its earnings."
The plan "doesn't provide a cost estimate, and a Baucus aide declined to give one," the paper added. "The plans proposed by Sens. Obama and Clinton were each estimated to cost about $100 billion a year, not accounting for savings they hoped to generate through new efficiencies in health-care delivery."
Baucus' plan would also expand coverage in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and allow people from 55 to 64 to "buy in" to Medicare by paying the premium cost. It would also loosen eligibility requirements for some federal assistance programs.
Read the full Journal article here and the NY Times' description of the proposal here.
|
