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In his Saturday radio address, President Bush offered a glimpse of a healthcare proposal forthcoming in Tuesday's State of the Union address. The prosal calls for tax breaks for Americans without health insurance or whose employers provide less than a specified level of health insurance, as well as tax increases for those whose employer-paid health insurance coverage is above a specified amount. The New York Times and Reuters provide more details.

Following are some early reactions:

"Most of the uninsured are people who are working and they've got a little bit too high of income to qualify for Medicaid or other government programs. If they buy health insurance they have to pay for it entirely out of their own pocket....This would be a significant amount of new help for them."
--Mark McClellan, former CMS Administrator, quoted in an Associated Press story

“If the President really wants to take the lead on skyrocketing health care costs and securing our nation’s energy future, he must put forth comprehensive strategies that truly help consumers....Tax deductions do little or nothing for those people who are uninsured and devastated by high health care costs....When an individual family policy for decent health coverage costs about $11,000 a year, tax credits of $1,000 to $3,000 to buy insurance are almost meaningless.”
--Bill Vaughan, Senior Policy Analyst, Consumers Union

“It’s a bad policy.... We are trying to bring tax relief to the middle class. The president is trying to increase their tax liability. This proposal is inconsistent with what the majority is seeking in the House and the Senate.”
--Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), quoted in The New York Times