Revised Health Care Bill Eliminates Public Option
September 16, 2009 - After months of intense discussion, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) today unveiled his version of a health care bill that excludes a public option and requires people to be insured by 2013. Preliminary estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) report that enacting this proposal would reduce the federal deficit by $49 billion from 2010-2019.
If enacted, the bill would:
- Implement a 35 percent excise tax on insurance plans that cost more than $8,000 a year for an individual and $21,000 for a family.
- Penalize people who opted not to purchase insurance, with fines ranging from $750 to $3,800 per year, depending on income level and family size. Employers who didn’t offer insurance coverage to their employees would also be penalized.
- Create Web-based insurance exchanges to allow consumers to shop for and compare insurance plans in their area, as well as state-run insurance exchange through which individuals and small firms could purchase coverage.
- Establish a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP), a network of nonprofit, consumer-owned companies that would compete with private insurers.
- Prohibit health insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and health status.
For more read USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-09-16-health-care-bill_N.htm
