Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) “is circulating the outlines of sweeping health-care legislation that would require every American to have insurance and would mandate that employers contribute to workers’ coverage,” the Washington Post reports. It reportedly resembles the plan in Massachusetts.
The plan in the summary document, provided by two Democrats who do not work for Kennedy, closely resembles extensive changes enacted in the senator’s home state three years ago.
In many respects it adopts the most liberal approaches to health reform being discussed in Washington. Kennedy, for example, embraces a proposal to create a government-sponsored insurance program to compete directly with existing private insurance plans, according to one senior adviser who was not authorized to talk to reporters.
The draft summary also calls for opening Medicaid to those whose incomes are 500 percent of the federal poverty level, or $110,250 a year for a family of four.
The White House “expects Kennedy to unveil his bill Monday.”
A timetable released by Kennedy’s office calls for Democrats on the Senate health committee to meet Tuesday, with a bipartisan session scheduled for Friday. Committee markups could begin June 16.
If the ailing lawmaker keeps to that ambitious schedule, it would put him ahead of several other Democratic leaders crafting health bills.
Congress in Your Pocket
Do we really believe that Kennedy wants his public plan to compete with private medical care or to destroy it? See http://www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com.
I’m not that worried about single-payer because I don’t think it can be jammed through over the objections of all of the special interests and the American public. Obama will discover what a dozen or so prior presidents learned; health care reform is a labyrinth that is easy to enter, but impossible to solve.