Efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare system got a big boost as Senator Max Baucus, head of the Senate Finance Committee, proposed creating a national insurance exchange through which millions of uninsured Americans and businesses could get health coverage.
Both major parties, Congress, consumer groups and employers agree the U.S. healthcare system is in shambles and needs reworking with nearly 46 million Americans without health insurance while paying more per capita for healthcare than citizens of any other industrialized country.
Congress has been waiting for years to enact healthcare reform, and a quick and enthusiastic response to Baucus's plan suggests considerable backing.
"He has rightly sounded the urgent plea to get comprehensive reform done early in the next Congress and recognizes that the failure to act has dire and unacceptable consequences for working families, businesses and our national economy," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a senior Democrat and a life-long supporter of expanded healthcare access, has said he wants lawmakers united behind one bill.
Baucus, who as head of the tax-writing Finance Committee will play a major role, said he plans to work closely with Obama, who takes office on January 20, Kennedy and other lawmakers.