Report boosts bipartisan health plan - Yahoo! News

Report boosts bipartisan health plan - Yahoo! News:

"Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, the other sponsor of the legislation, said the report confirmed that the plan would not only cut health-care costs but actually save money in the long run.

'I am convinced we can reach our goal to improve coverage and provide affordable, private health insurance to every American,' Bennett said at a news conference with Wyden and other Senate supporters of the bill.

The so-called Healthy Americans Act would replace the current employer-based health insurance system with a system in which the government requires, subsidizes, and oversees a system of private health care plans that individuals select. The coverage would be guaranteed to be as good as that which federal employees receive, and the government would subsidize health care for people up to 400 percent of the poverty level.

The plan is paid for in part by changes to the tax code, including a new tax on employers of between 3 percent and 26 percent. Wyden labels the tax 'employer-shared responsibility payments' and notes that they would replace money employers now spend to provide private health insurance for their workers.
The employer payments are expected to generate up to $100 billion a year in federal revenue.

'Employers like this plan, and the reason they like it is because it cuts their current and future health care costs,' Wyden said."

Obviously, the torpedos are being loaded into the submarines already, but this may represent an opportunity for real reform and, although not single payer so much as Bismarkian/sickness fund style plan, I can live with it. And, more importantly, even many free marketeers can live with it, too.

Sen. Wyden's press release is here, and it lists current Senate co-sponsors.

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