Some pro­pos­als are being con­sid­ered in the US Health Care bill that Sen­a­tors hope will make cov­er­age more afford­able. The bill orig­i­nally imposed fines on peo­ple who could not afford insur­ance, but a new amend­ment seeks to give an excep­tion to peo­ple who incomes are too low.

From the New York Times, writer David M. Her­szen­horn explains some of the pro­pos­als being considered.

Among the pro­pos­als under con­sid­er­a­tion is an amend­ment by Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, Demo­c­rat of Wash­ing­ton, that would cre­ate a “basic health plan” for Amer­i­cans earn­ing less than 200 per­cent of the fed­eral poverty level, or $44,100 for a fam­ily of four. The pro­posal would let states develop or expand var­i­ous exist­ing insur­ance pro­grams that now typ­i­cally cover peo­ple who qual­ify for Med­ic­aid. Small states could develop plans jointly.

The Bau­cus bill would already expand Med­ic­aid to Amer­i­cans earn­ing up to 133 per­cent of poverty, and Ms. Cantwell’s pro­posal would effec­tively expand it fur­ther. But because her plan is expected to be cheaper than pro­vid­ing sub­si­dies to those low-income peo­ple to buy their own insur­ance, it could save money that could be used to make other pro­vi­sions of the bill more generous.

Other poten­tial com­po­nents of the afford­abil­ity pack­age include a pro­posal by Sen­a­tor Olympia J. Snowe, Repub­li­can of Maine, to phase in the finan­cial penalty for peo­ple who fail to obtain health insurance.

There is also an amend­ment by Sen­a­tor Charles E. Schumer, Demo­c­rat of New York, that would allow exemp­tions from the penalty if insur­ance would cost more than 7 per­cent of house­hold income. The bill cur­rently sets the exemp­tion at 10 per­cent of income.

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