Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, called the measure a “stunning assault on our liberty’’ and cited a requirement for individuals and families to buy insurance. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican involved in the private negotiations, said the Senate Democratic leadership had imposed a mid-September deadline, “causing the end to our bipartisan work before it was done.’’ He called it an absurd move, “utterly and completely appalling.’’
The Republican Baucus has courted most assiduously, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, said noncommittally that the legislation was “a solid starting point - but we are far from the finish line.’’
The panel is the fifth and last of the congressional committees to review President Obama’s call for sweeping legislation to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, expand protections for those already covered, and curb growing medical costs.
Baucus has said he hopes the panel can complete work by the weekend, although more than 500 amendments were pending to the 10-year, nearly $900 billion bill.
The most significant change Baucus formally unveiled yesterday would sweeten the subsidies for individuals and families with incomes up to four times the government’s poverty level - $43,320 for individuals and $88,200 for a family of four. In addition, Baucus called for lower out-of-pocket medical costs for some families and recommended making it easier for those who cannot afford the coverage offered by employers to qualify for federal subsidies so they can purchase individual policies.
The revisions would significantly alter a proposed tax on high-cost insurance policies, a measure that has drawn particular opposition from organized labor and liberal Democrats. Baucus said he would exempt from the tax policies sold to “high risk’’ workers, such as firefighters. At the same time, he raised the level of the tax to recoup some of the revenue that would otherwise be lost.
