Health Plan Without Republican Support?

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus proposed a health care system that has been outlined by the president and has been criticized as being overly expensive by republicans. The Finance Committee is supposed to meet next week to vote on the plan and then after combining it with another bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid, plans to begin debating on the Senate by late this month or early next month. Baucus believes that "we can't let this opportunity pass," as his $856 billion plan is designed to protect millions of Americans who have unreliable health insurance or simply no health insurance at all. Experts believe the proposal would reduce the number of the uninsured by 29 million over the coming decade. They also predict that the plan would lower the federal deficits by $49 billion during the same period and savings estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars that might also result in the coming decade. Many of the bill's important provisions would be delayed until 2013, after the next presidential election. Baucus has made the main compromise of allowing cooperatives, instead of the federal government, to sell insurance in competition with private industry to gain Republican support. But it's had a great impact in this unsuccessful search for Republican support as it wasn't welcomed well and was judged harshly by others. Supporters believe the co-ops would compete successfully with private companies and it would also help maintain the cost of insurance low, but the Congressional Budget Office believes that it is "unlikely to establish a significant market presence," as a result it is more likely to strengthen advocates of government competition. Baucus remains optimistic as he told reporters that he expects to gain bipartisan support before the bill emerges from committee by next week. His plan would require insurance companies to sell coverage to everyone seeking it, without leaving out those with pre-existing medical conditions. It would also create insurance exchanges in the states where companies could sell policies that meet a criteria set by the government, with financial support available for lower-income people and families who are unable to afford coverage; any policy offered for sale in the exchanges would have to cover dental, prescription drug, mental health and vision services. His plan sounds like a fair plan so hopefully he is able to gain support from both Democrats and Republicans in the time coming. Most Americans are waiting and hoping for a bipartisan plan to be introduced really soon.