Associated Press:
Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.
The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.
By contrast, an earlier, incomplete proposal carried a price tag of roughly $1 trillion and would have left millions uninsured, CBO analysts said in mid-June.
Once the bill passes in the senate, they'll have to write yet another bill to reconcile the differences between what passed in the house and the senate. If the public option is in both version, it's practically a lead pipe cinch it'll be in the final version.
With poll after poll showing a public option being incredibly popular, the insurance companies are finding their lobbying efforts a little stimied -- they may have deep pockets, but in the end, it's people who vote.
