House unveils health care plan with public option
By Bloomberg News
This article was originally published October 29, 2009 at 11:24 a.m. Updated October 29, 2009 at 11:24 a.m.
PHOTO BY AP / CHARLES DHARAPAK
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announces the health care overhaul bill on Capitol Hill in Washington.
HEALTH CARE INTERACTIVES
WASHINGTON — House leaders unveiled an $894 billion plan to create a government-run health-insurance program, require most employers to cover their workers and impose a new tax on the wealthiest Americans.
The legislation comes after three months of negotiations by House Democrats and represents the most sweeping changes to the nation’s health-care system since the 1965 creation of the federal Medicare program for the elderly. The measure would overhaul the insurance market, encourage greater use of preventive medicine and help Americans buy coverage.
“We are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an event at the Capitol on Thursday. She said the measure, which covers 10 years, lays “the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come.”
Pelosi agreed to a compromise over one of the most divisive issues facing Congress — the establishment of the government insurance program, or public option, to compete with insurers to try to drive down costs.
Lacking votes for a program that would tie the program’s reimbursements to doctors to the lower rates paid by Medicare, Pelosi settled on a plan that would instead negotiate rates with providers, as private insurers do, lawmakers said.
President Barack Obama has made health care his top domestic priority and said he wants to sign a bill into law by the end of the year.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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