Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley emerged from an eight-hour Senate Finance Committee meeting on Thursday and said that the Senate’s healthcare reform legislation will very likely require every American to have health insurance, reports Politico. The committee, which debated how to finance health reform, agreed that lowering healthcare costs must start with universal coverage. The senators also agreed on the need for an insurance exchange organized by the government to help individuals and small businesses find the best rates of health insurance. The committee’s Democrats and Republicans, however, could not agree on whether to include an option for a public insurance plan in their bill. Another sticking point: whether to mandate employers to either provide insurance to their workers or pay a fee to an insurance fund.
On those two issues, said Grassley, the ranking member of the committee, there is a “philosophical difference” between the two parties, reports The Wall Street Journal. He added, however, “We might be able to find a consensus” on the public plan. Baucus, chairman of the committee, downplayed any disagreement on the employer mandate, saying that senators were unclear how it would work.
