Baucus Releases Health Care Plan Summary

Baucus is meeting with the so-called "Gang of Six" at 3 p.m. today to gauge the level of support this plan has from members of the minority.

Hopefully this is going to be the last meeting of the gang of six, because if Baucus' plan is still to get his bill passed using their support then he's learned nothing over the break at all...

The 65 percent minimum actuarial value and the 13 percent affordability cap are going to have to be changed. That would mean a family of four earning $80,000/yr. would have to spend 13 percent of their income on premiums alone for a policy that has a $1,500-$2,000 deductible and $10,000 out-of-pocket cap. This means that if this family had a diabetic child, they would have to spend 25.5 percent of their income [(0.13*$80K+$10K)/$80K] on health care. Whether or not this is the public option or a private plan offering the policy, I don't think this is going to fly with the public.

At the end of the day, what's going to determine the legislation's political fate not the public option or the death panels. What is going to determine the legislation's fate is whether or not the American people believe benefits of the investment outweigh the costs. If the bill's price tag goes significantly above a certain level, then many families with employer-based health care will protest their significantly negatively affected health benefits. Conversely, if the bill's price tag goes significantly below $900 billion, many families who don't get their health insurance through their employer will be required to spend a greater portion of their income on health care. Balancing this tradeoff is the question Democrats must now ask themselves.

Congratulations to the gang! Using their standards, my new insurance premium would be $1,882.50 per MONTH for a single high deductible policy. Due to a cut back in hours, my current gross salary is $1,100 per month. My husband draws social security and that's our only other source of income.

Since they're requiring that pre-x be covered you can take it to the bank that premiums will increase.

I do not want a subsidy, I want to be able to buy affordable insurance! I've been hanging on, hoping for something that would help me. This is a cruel joke. When I finish crying, I might write more.

People, time to move on. Mark my words, Congress will pass healthcare "reform' by mandating everyone pay the insurance companies whatever they charge for insurance, and then raise your taxes to fund Medicare and Medicaid, which, by the way, is due to go bankrupt in the next few years.