Universal Health Insurance Bill Gains More Support.

The so-called Healthy American Act, a proposed Senate bill originally presented in January by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, has just picked up an important endorsement from the other side of the aisle.

Republican Senator Bob Bennett of Utah said he supports Wyden’s plan, which calls for universal health insurance but separates the guarantee of affordable health coverage as a benefit of employment. A similar bill was introduced in the House by representatives Brian Baird Democratic representative from Washington, and Jo Ann Emerson, Republican Rep from Missouri.

The initial idea in both plans is for private health insurance companies to provide coverage to working individuals directly, and the monies that employers would have traditionally paid to the health insurance companies, instead would go back into employee wages. After a time the companies will then pay those funds to the federal government pool which will be providing universal health coverage to all individuals.

Republican Senator Bennett said he supported the measure because it could be paid for by the over 2.2 trillion dollars the US currently spends on healthcare, and yet not everyone has access to affordable medical insurance. According to some estimates by supporters of the bill it is estimated that the legislation could provide affordable health coverage for all Americans, especially all the children in the country, and still save the federal government almost one and a half trillion dollars over the next ten years.

According to Bennett the plan represents a true bipartisan effort and shows that the legislature has responded to growing concerns over health insurance and healthcare cost overruns in the country. This is comprehensive plan, says Bennett that would not be a federally run program. But it would make sure that every American, regardless of income or working status could have access to inexpensive health insurance that they could not lose. The bill's sponsors said the healthcare provided under the plan would equal that of the people’s representatives in The Congress, and yet save trillions in health care spending.

Advocacy groups while they may not support all of the details of the plan acknowledge its spirit. They applaud the bipartisan effort, and think it is great that congress is actually trying to move forward on getting all Americans access to affordable health insurance now, instead of waiting until after the 2008 presidential election.