The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has released details of a new health care plan. (The leaders of the committee are Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Dodd.) The plan has a public option and is paid for by fees on employers.
The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.
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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.
I think we’re close to a plan now. It costs under $1T and it will continue to prop up our employer-based system. I think a lot of stubborn Dems will now jump on board this plan, especially since Wal-Mart has announced support of health care reform.
In a major break with most other large companies, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Tuesday told the White House that it supports requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to provide near-universal coverage to Americans.
The support of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, could give momentum to one of the most-contentious aspects of legislation taking shape in Congress to fix the health system. To help pay for covering the 46 million uninsured, lawmakers have proposed mandating that all but small employers provide insurance for workers or help pay for it.
I’d like to highlight this part of Wal-Mart’s statement:
Wal-Mart isn’t changing its policies. The company says it supports the employer mandate because all businesses should share the burden of fixing the health-care system. Wal-Mart also said the mandate will only work if it is accompanied by a government commitment to rein in health-care costs that is guaranteed.
This part is key. Wal-Mart supports a public option, so this should aid those wavering Democrats (I’m looking at you Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor).
I think this is really exciting news! I know the plan is quite imperfect and could still be better but I expect we’ll start to see some real momentum now.