HELP: A Potential Solution to Health Care Reform?
According to an item on yesterday's Huff Post, the Democrats have come up with a new HC reform bill that would cover 97% of Americans and cost $400 million less than the previously proposed plan.
From the article:
"Additionally, the revised 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. The same provision is also estimated to greatly reduce the number of workers whose employers would drop coverage, thus addressing a major concern noted by CBO when it reviewed the earlier proposals."
[...]
"In their letter, Kennedy and Dodd said the Congressional Budget Office 'has carefully reviewed our complete bill, and we are pleased to report that CBO has scored it at $611.4 billion over 10 years, with the new coverage provisions scored at $597 billion. ...The completed bill virtually eliminates the dropping of currently covered employees from employer-sponsored health plans.
'In addition, our bill, combined with the work being done by our colleagues in the Finance Committee, will dramatically reduce the number of uninsured _ fully 97 percent of Americans will have coverage, a major achievement.' "
Guess we'll see if the majority in both houses has the cojones to act on this change so many Americans desperately need.
