Democrats Weigh Wider Coverage

Senate Leaders Discuss Expanding Health-Insurance Subsidies, but Cost of Change Looms as Hurdle

By GREG HITT
WSJ

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats may widen insurance coverage in sweeping health legislation, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said Thursday, but they face a struggle to come up with ways to pay for the extra spending.

Liberal lawmakers and some others say the 10-year, $829 billion package approved by the Senate Finance Committee this week doesn't go far enough to expand health coverage and puts too great a burden on lower- and middle-income families to buy insurance.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would ensure that 94% of nonelderly Americans are covered by health insurance in 2019, up from 83% in 2010.

Senate Democrats may add to subsidies for lower-income families to push that percentage to 95% or 96%, people familiar with the discussions said. If more people sign up for insurance, fewer would face the penalties that the bill proposes for those who choose to go without coverage.

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