Efforts to establish a government-backed health insurance plan in the US received a boost yesterday when the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives presented a bill that included a "consumer option" for healthcare.
But the bill, unveiled by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, falls short of what liberals were hoping for and was attacked by fiscal conservatives opposed to government involvement in healthcare. It remains unclear whether it will pass through the House.
"We're about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality healthcare available for all Americans," said Ms Pelosi, adding that her bill would see 36m of the more than 45m uninsured receive cover.
Ms Pelosi's bill, which she said would cost $894bn (£540bn, €602bn) over a decade, under the $900bn limit set by President Barack Obama, combines drafts from three House committees. It will be debated on the House floor next week.
Mr Obama yesterday said the bill was "another critical milestone in the effort to reform our healthcare system".
In the Senate, Harry Reid, the majority leader, is still working on merging the two upper chamber drafts, although he has already announced he too will include a public health insurance option.
The House bill includes a public insurance option that would allow doctors and hospitals to negotiate reimbursement rates with the government. House liberals, including Ms Pelosi herself, had wanted to peg rates to the lower ones used by Medicare, the health plan for the elderly, but she faced opposition from rural Democrats who argued this would hurt smaller healthcare providers.
Analysts said the bill would hardly reduce medical costs, Mr Obama's key aim.
"This is really just a first step," said Dean Baker, a healthcare expert at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. "By not tying rates to Medicare, it does very little on costs."
Some other aspects of the House bill have also been watered down. A 5.4 per cent surtax on the wealthy will kick in only when individuals make more than $500,000 a year and couples more than $1m.
However, the bill expands eligibility for Medicaid, which offers healthcare to lower income groups, to those earning up to 150 per cent of poverty level, up from 133 per cent.
Opponents of government-backed healthcare criticised the bill.
Tom Price, a Republican Congressman from Georgia, said that the bill amounted to a "government takeover that will limit choice, competition and innovation in healthcare while increasing costs and decreasing -quality".
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