After finding few takers for a health reform plan with mandatory employer contributions, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was testing the waters with a new proposal Monday that replaces workplace mandates with incentives to buy insurance.
Moynihan's Senate Finance Committee could pass a bill by week's end, a key member, Sen. John Chafee, said Monday. "This is truly a crucial week," he added.Moynihan was conferring with fellow Democrats Monday before presenting his ideas to the full committee in a closed-door session
this afternoon. It was still being fine-tuned, but aides said the New York Democrat this time will eschew mandates on employers or individuals but dangle subsidies before businesses instead to entice them to pitch in.
A separate compromise advanced Friday by Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., and a half-dozen Finance Committee moderates also avoided the Clinton path of mandatory contributions from all employers and aimed for 95 percent coverage by 2002.
Chafee said Monday that much of Moynihan's "package that is very, very similar to what we came up with."
Sen. John Breaux, D-La., a Finance Committee member and co-sponsor of the Chafee plan, said he believes he will find more similarities than differences.
The Moynihan plan sets a target of 95 percent coverage by 2000, with a national health commission then to recommend ways to close the rest of the gap, but with Congress under no obligation to follow its prescription, according to a Washington Post report based on a 139-page draft of the proposal.
Moynihan would offer subsidies to low-wage companies that pick up 80 percent of their workers' premiums and allow small businesses that pay at least 50 percent of the premiums to sign their staff up for the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, the newspaper said.
White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said Monday that Clinton is "glad there's progress and he wants to see the process continue," but would keep emphasizing his commitment to universal coverage.