BUT CAN HE GET DEMOCRATS TO BACK A PLAN THAT PRIVATE?:

Democratic senator readying a national health-care plan (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/14/06, Los Angeles Times)

[Senator Ron] Wyden's plan would require employers to continue contributing toward the cost of health coverage, but it would get them out of the business of directly providing insurance and limit their exposure to double-digit annual inflation.

In the first two years of the plan, employers who now provide coverage would be required to directly pay workers what they were spending on insurance. Thereafter, most companies would pay the government a health-care contribution resembling a payroll tax.

Using the money from their employers, individuals would be required to purchase private insurance policies through state purchasing pools. Benefits would be keyed to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Plan available to federal workers.

The uninsured also would have to buy coverage, but premiums for the poor would be fully subsidized by the government, and middle-class families with incomes up to $80,000 for a family of four would be eligible for help on a sliding scale.

Premiums from individuals and contributions from employers would be collected by the government through the tax system and distributed to insurers. Once enrolled, individuals would be covered until retirement. Seniors in the Medicare program would not have to make changes.

An analysis by the Lewin Group consulting firm said the plan would reduce health spending by private employers by nearly three-quarters and save $1.4 trillion in total national health-care spending over the next decade.

Such a plan should also either require or massively incentivize HSAs.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2006 12:00 AM