Dem ? National Health Plan announced by Center for American Progress

[papau]

http://www.cbpp.org/
Today at the National Press Club, the Center for American Progress, that new liberal think tank peopled by former Bill Clinton policy types, will try to revive the goal of achieving universal health care coverage by introducing a proposal they've been cooking for about a year.

They've briefed Democratic staffers on the Hill and hope to move it through the political bloodstream in the next few months. They acknowledge that their plan has little chance of making into passable legislation this year or next, but they hope to provide nourishment for those Democrats and others hungry for a serious universal health care plan.

The plan sounds similar to a mesh of proposals by Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean and nominee John Kerry in the last election.

—the bulk of the new insurance coverage would come from an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid.
—They'd add a new option for individuals similar to the federal employment health care program.
—They say they'd limit payments from individuals by pegging deductibles to 5 and 7 percent of their income
—They'd ask people enroll in insurance or pay an income-related charge if they don't want insurance . . . so it truly would be universal in their eyes.
—They say other facets of the plan improves value, prioritizes wellness over illness, and emphasizes research.
The plan would be paid for by progressive VAT at a three or four percent rate.

The CAP staff says the plan is unlike Clinton care in 1994 because it relies on the existing employer-based health insurance model, doesn't expand government bureaucracy, expands choice of doctors and stresses personal responsibility.

[papau]

1. more detail from ABCNote

We're told that the Center for American Progress's health care plan proposes to expand health coverage most significantly from by expanding subsidized employer coverage and from expanded benefits under the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan. And the plan hold individual premiums to between five and seven percent of income. A previous Note on the plan suggested otherwise

[OzarkDem]

2. I didn't see anything at the link

Does their plan address the needs of the uninsured who don't have heatlth care coverage at work or who can't afford health insurance premiums? What is their poverty threshold? Do women have to have dependent children or be over age 65 to get coverage?