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House Democrats unveil plan for healthcare system - The Boston Globe
House Democrats unveil plan for healthcare system
Overall cost expected to top $1 trillion
By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times / June 20, 2009
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WASHINGTON - Senior House Democrats yesterday introduced their plan for reshaping the nationÂ’s healthcare system, calling for a new government insurance option program, a new mandate on employers to provide coverage, and a new guarantee of subsidized healthcare for the poor.
The draft - the fullest presentation so far of congressional liberalsÂ’ vision for overhauling medical care - offered few indications of how such a plan would be financed. The full cost is expected to top $1 trillion.
The billÂ’s authors said they would detail their plan to cover the costs in coming weeks.
“We’re going to pay for this bill,’’ said House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman, Democrat of California.
Options under consideration include cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as new taxes - including the possibility of taxing some employees for job-based insurance.
The blueprint drew swift praise from President Obama. “This proposal would improve the affordability, availability, and quality of healthcare and represents a major step toward . . . our goal of fixing what is broken about healthcare while building on what works,’’ he said in a statement.
But representatives of the insurance industry immediately attacked the proposal to offer a government medical plan that consumers could choose as an alternative to private coverage. The industry contends that any such government option would have advantages that private companies could not compete with. <more at link>
House Democrats unveil plan for healthcare system
Overall cost expected to top $1 trillion
By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times / June 20, 2009
Email|Print|Reprints|Yahoo! Buzz|ShareThis Text size – +
WASHINGTON - Senior House Democrats yesterday introduced their plan for reshaping the nationÂ’s healthcare system, calling for a new government insurance option program, a new mandate on employers to provide coverage, and a new guarantee of subsidized healthcare for the poor.
The draft - the fullest presentation so far of congressional liberalsÂ’ vision for overhauling medical care - offered few indications of how such a plan would be financed. The full cost is expected to top $1 trillion.
The billÂ’s authors said they would detail their plan to cover the costs in coming weeks.
“We’re going to pay for this bill,’’ said House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman, Democrat of California.
Options under consideration include cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as new taxes - including the possibility of taxing some employees for job-based insurance.
The blueprint drew swift praise from President Obama. “This proposal would improve the affordability, availability, and quality of healthcare and represents a major step toward . . . our goal of fixing what is broken about healthcare while building on what works,’’ he said in a statement.
But representatives of the insurance industry immediately attacked the proposal to offer a government medical plan that consumers could choose as an alternative to private coverage. The industry contends that any such government option would have advantages that private companies could not compete with. <more at link>
