WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President Obama prepared Monday for his speech to Congress on health care reform, some details leaked out about fees and coverage limits under a proposal being floated by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,  according to the New York Times.
The proposal from Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, would impose new fees on some sectors of the health care industry — but none on individuals — to offset initial costs estimated at $880 billion over 10 years, according to officials familiar with the proposal, the New York Times said.
The proposal circulating among some committee members of both parties also would offer the option of lower-cost insurance that protects only against the costs of catastrophic illnesses to those who are 25 years old and younger, the Times said. In addition, the proposal would provide basic Medicaid coverage to millions of low-income people who now are ineligible for the program, but these benefits would be less-comprehensive than those of traditional Medicaid, the Times said.
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Today, Baucus will try to win support for the proposal from the three Republicans and two other Democrats on his finance committee with whom he has been deliberating for months, according to the Times. In the end, Baucus will need a majority of the committee’s 23 members, several of whom are resentful at being excluded from the deliberations thus far, the Times said.
Obama plans to meet at the White House today with top Democrats to coordinate a health reform strategy, the Times said. Administration officials declined to comment on the Baucus proposal or on the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the Times said. The speech is aimed in part to kick-start legislation to reform health care after the raucous town-hall meetings and misinformation that occurred during the congressional summer recess.
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