Obama’s Health Care Agenda
$750-per-worker annual fee on large companies
With determination to advance Obama’s health care agenda, key Senate Democrats are calling for a government-run insurance option to compete with private plans, which also includes a $750-per-worker annual fee on large companies that do not offer coverage to their employees.
In a letter outlining the details, Senators Kennedy and Dodd, said their revised plan would cost dramatically less than an earlier, incomplete proposal, and help pave the way toward coverage for 97% of all Americans.
$611.4 billion over 10 years
The two senators said the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of the new proposal to be $611.4 billion over 10 years, versus $1 trillion from two weeks ago.
Kennedy and Dodd will begin pushing their legislation after the July 4 holiday.
Several committees are collaborating in the House on legislation expected to come to a vote by the end of July. That measure will include a government-run insurance option.
Essentially, all the bills would require insurance companies to sell coverage to any applicant, without charging higher premiums for pre-existing medical conditions. Poorer individuals and families would qualify for government subsidies to help with the cost of coverage. The government’s costs would be covered by a combination of higher taxes and cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spending.
“Like the president and a strong majority of Americans, we believe that a strong public option is an important component of any health reform bill that keeps costs down, expands coverage and offers American families a wide variety of affordable options,” the two Democrats wrote.
They outlined an approach in which the Health and Human Services Department would negotiate rates and premiums, and poorer individuals and families would be entitled to the same subsidies as anyone buying coverage from private insurance firms.
“We must not settle for legislation that merely gestures at reform,” the two Democrats wrote. “We must deliver on the promise of true change.”
The letter indicated that the cost and coverage improvements resulted from two changes:
- the government-run health insurance option, which has drawn intense opposition from Republicans
- the employer fees.
The proposal calls for a $750 annual fee on employers for each full-time worker not offered coverage through their job. The fee would be set at $375 for part-time workers. Companies with fewer than 25 employees would be exempt. The fee was forecast to generate $52 billion over 10 years, money the government would use to help provide subsidies to those who cannot afford insurance.
To view the proposal in PDF format, click below (3.4 MB).
By Fast and Reliable Credit Repair and AP wire services
To the Congress of the United States -PLEASE PLEASE, DO NOT VOTE FOR oBAMA'S HEALTH CARE FIasco of a plan
To the Congress of the United States -PLEASE PLEASE, DO NOT VOTE FOR oBAMA'S HEALTH CARE FIasco of a plan
NO NO NO TO GOV. RUN HEALTHCARE……