Sen.Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Sen. Bob Bennett are creating a health care package that may rival Sen. Clinton's and Sen. Obama's health care proposals.<p>  (R-Utah) From The American Prospect:
<blockquote>Under the Wyden-Bennett system, health dollars would be controlled by
the individual (a long-time conservative goal) and used within a
restructured, heavily regulated, totally universal, insurance
marketplace (a longtime liberal goal). Each state would create Health
Help Agencies, who would provide easy access to insurance products,
along with information, guidance, and advice on how to choose. Insurers
would have to meet a minimum standard for comprehensiveness (equivalent
to the standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan currently offered to
members of Congress), and they could not discriminate based on
pre-existing conditions, occupation, genetic information, gender or
age. Nor could they deny insurance to those who ask for it. In return,
every American would have to buy health insurance, and there would be
hefty subsidies for those further down the income ladder.<p>The plan, to be sure, lacks some liberal priorities, notably a
public insurance option. But it makes up for that by tightly
integrating the system, going much further than Clinton or Obama do to
bring the patchwork American health-care mess under one roof, where
costs would prove more containable (the Lewin Group, a highly respected
health-care consulting firm, estimates that the plan would save $1.4
trillion over 10 years) and future reforms and initiatives would be far
easier. And they have done so along with 10 other senators. It's
conceivable that, by the time the next president is elected, they will
have created a legislative working group that can actually pass health
reform—something we've never had before.<p>The question is whether that legislative working group will actually hang together when the eventual vote is called.</blockquote> Read the whole article here.