Lawmakers debate government-provided health insurance

WASHINGTON -- Senators were meeting Thursday to consider whether the federal government should jump into the health insurance business as House Democrats began looking at big health care changes, including federal aid to help families earning up to $88,000 pay for insurance and a requirement that all must carry coverage.

A document obtained by the Associated Press shows the plan being developed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would also require employers to offer coverage to their full-time workers, or pay a percentage of their payroll to the government.

The committee summary is a first look at where House Democrats are headed as leaders try to meet an ambitious goal of passing a health care overhaul by the end of July.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is expected to play a leading role in crafting the plan and steering it through negotiations with the Senate later in the year.

The government already covers medical care for seniors, disabled people, poor families and many children. But coverage in those programs is restricted to people who meet certain qualifications, including age and income.

The issue now is whether middle-class workers and their families should be offered the choice of joining a government-sponsored plan similar to what they get through their employers.

Senators on the Finance Committee on Thursday weighed several designs for a public plan. They also will be given the option of having no public plan at all.

That last option is the outcome the insurance industry is hoping for.

The companies say a government plan could put them out of business, and they've offered to submit to new consumer protections and help find $2 trillion in health care savings over 10 years in the hopes of warding off any government-sponsored plan.

Business groups also are leery of the idea. Republicans already are saying a public plan would put bureaucrats, not doctors and patients, in control of life-and-death decisions.

But Democrats think the idea would be a political winner. Since Medicare — a government-run plan — is popular with seniors, they figure a public plan for the middle class also would find acceptance.