Kennedy's plan aims to provide health care to the uninsured

The proposal relies on an employer mandate, a purchasing pool and cost-cutting measures.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. Feb. 9, 2004.

Washington -- As the Democrats begin to roll out this year's plans for extending coverage to the 43.6 million uninsured Americans, it seems clear Congress once again will be divided over health care legislation.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), who has long been a leader on health care legislation, recently announced a proposal to address the issue by combining an employer mandate with a national purchasing pool offering subsidized benefits for both individuals and small employers. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program would serve as a model for the purchasing pool and a standard for the benefits offered.

"The cornerstone of universal health care should be a requirement that employers share in the responsibility to provide quality health insurance for employees," Kennedy said. Employers already provide coverage to 170 million Americans, he added.

Kennedy's approach "builds on the pillars of the current system," said Edwin Park, a senior health policy analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C.

By spreading health care costs evenly across a broad group of employers, such an approach can help even the playing field, he said.

But mistrust and resistance to federal regulation in the business community and Republican opposition might prove significant obstacles for Democrats to overcome in pushing forward with any employer mandate.

"Loading a poorly crafted, astronomically costly regulation on the backs of small-business owners is unfair," said Dan Danner, senior vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business. "A national mandate on small-business owners will further stress an already critical situation."