New healthcare bill would require employers to offer health coverage or pay $750/year per employee
03 07 09 - 12:23
Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill
By John Fritze - USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats unveiled new details of a plan to revamp the nation's health care system Thursday, including a public, government-run insurance program and a $750-per-employee annual fee on companies that do not offer health benefits.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week.
"This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president's goals," Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill's cost. "We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices."
In a statement, President Obama said the bill "reflects many of the principles I've laid out" and he praised the committee for including a controversial public insurance option that he said would "make health care affordable by increasing competition."
Legislation by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would provide insurance to 15 million who do not have it now, about 30% of the uninsured population, the CBO said. Obama and Dodd said once the is bill merged with a separate proposal by the Senate Finance Committee as many 97% of uninsured would be covered.
But the cost will also increase when those two bills are merged. The cost of the bill has been a major stumbling block in overhauling the nation's health care system.
Many provisions, including the public plan, were left out of a previous health committee draft. Among the changes announced today:
•If the bill is approved, the Department of Health and Human Services would oversee a public insurance program to compete with private insurers. The program would reimburse doctors at prices negotiated by the government. Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have opposed the idea.
•A provision would require companies with 25 or more employees to offer health benefits to employees or pay an annual fee of $750 per worker that would be used to provide coverage to the uninsured. Companies would also be required to pay at least 60% of premiums.
•The new legislation would provide subsidies to fewer moderate-income people to help pay for insurance. Income eligibility levels would increase to 400% of poverty, or about $88,000 for a family of four, from the 500%, or $110,000, that had been called for in an earlier draft.
Groups in favor of overhauling health care praised the bill Thursday. "The bill will make health coverage and care more affordable," Families USA executive director Ron Pollack said in a statement. "And the bill offers families with security and peace of mind by ensuring that health coverage can never be taken away."
But Republicans, who have opposed many of the provisions added this week, were relatively silent. A spokesman for Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., the leading Republican on the health committee, was not immediately available for comment.