Provisions for young, old in Kennedy bill; Senate leaders eye July for bill

Sen. Edward Kennedy's health care reform bill includes provisions to allow elderly people remain in their homes and the young to stay on their parents health insurance until age 26, according to The Associated Press.

"The 651-page bill released by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, calls for a new long-term care insurance program that would provide modest assistance at an affordable premium to help disabled people keep living in their own homes. It also would allow children to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26. That issue is currently regulated by the states, which set widely different requirements."

"Lawmakers at both ends of the Capitol are accelerating their drive to enact health care legislation, with House Democratic leaders also outlining a proposal. But Democrats are not saying yet how they plan to cover the costs, which could exceed $1 trillion over 10 years." House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio warned Wednesday that "the Democrats' plans are a 'bait and switch' that will lead to higher taxes, more government control and rationed care" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/10).

Meanwhile, Politico reports: "The four leading senators on health care gathered at the White House Wednesday in what was labeled as 'a gathering of the minds,' to discuss how to make the increasingly complex health reform debate bipartisan, while getting a bill to the Senate floor by July." Obama told four Senators at the White House Wednesday that he prefers a bipartisan approach to solving the reform question, but that he expects one to get done (Parnes, 6/10).

Also, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care released a frame work of a reform plan that offers a public plan marketplace - a "Consumer Choice Health Plan" - to operate next to private insurance and would establish a trust to oversee health insurance. He calls it the Consumers Health Care Act.

"Without the steady, positive influence of a public plan option in the marketplace, we will never truly solve the health care crisis in this country," Rockefeller said in a release. "Private health insurance has a long history of cutting people off or charging too much for too little. The Consumers Health Care Act is about offering complete coverage at an affordable rate - period."