The Senate Finance Committee has released a comprehensive list of proposed amendments to chairman Max Baucus’ health care reform draft. You can read it here. There’s a ton of interesting stuff in there, including measures that would expand subsidies and create a robust public option. But there’s also this one, from Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME):
This amendment establishes a non-profit government corporation through which a âsafety netâ plan would be provided in any state in which affordable coverage was not available in the Exchange to at least 95% of state residents. An individual would be deemed to have affordable access if either of two conditions is met. First, two or more plans are offered with premiums – the cost of which does not exceed a specified percentage of the individual’s adjusted gross income (AGI), after deducting any available tax credit or employer subsidy from the cost of such premium. The percentage contribution shall range from 3 percent of AGI at 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, to 13 percent at 300 percent and above.
This is the same triggered public option proposal she’s been floating all along, and it’s not one that will appease most progressives. Hearings on the legislation begin tomorrow, and the vote on this amendment will be one of the most widely noted. If it passes, then when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid merges the Finance Committee bill with the HELP Committee bill, he’ll have to choose between the two. And that’s when the fight over the public option will really heat up.
