Revised health care overhaul legislation under development in the Senate would result in insurance coverage for 97 percent of Americans leaders of a key committee said Thursday though the total cost is still unknown.
The Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee is expected to resume work next week on the latest version of its overhaul bill released Wednesday night.
Chairman Edward M. Kennedy D-Mass. and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd D-Conn. outlined the revised measure in a letter to other panel members. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the latest version would cost $611 billion over ten years and would provide insurance to 90 percent of Americans excluding illegal immigrants.
HELP aides told reporters in a conference call Thursday that an assumed expansion of Medicaid to cover people earning less than 1.5 times the federal poverty level about $33075 for a family of four in 2009 would bring total coverage to 97 percent of the population.
The Medicaid expansion is part of a bill under development by the Finance committee. It and other Finance provisions are expected to bring the total cost of an overhaul bill to about $1 trillion over 10 years.
The HELP measure would require employers of 25 or more workers to provide health insurance to their workers and cover 60 percent of the premium costs or pay the government an annual fee of $750 per full-time worker or $375 for part-time workers.
The bill also would create a government-run public plan option" to compete with private insurers in a bid to spur better service and lower costs.
