Cost: $856 billion over 10 years.
Financing: Fees on insurance companies, drug makers, medical device manufacturers, and insurers. Tax of 35 percent on premiums paid on insurance plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. A fee on employers whose workers receive government subsidies to help them pay premiums. Fines on those individuals who fail to get coverage.
Requirements for individuals: Everyone must get coverage through an employer, on their own, or through a government plan.
Requirements for employers: Not required to offer coverage, but companies with more than 50 full-time workers would pay a fee if the government subsidizes employee coverage.
Subsidies: Tax credits for individuals and families making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $66,150 for a family of four. Households up to 400 percent of the poverty line could also get relief. Tax credits for small employers.
Benefits package: The government would set four benefit categories ranging from coverage of about 65 percent of medical costs to about 90 percent. No denial of coverage based on preexisting conditions. All plans sold to individuals and small businesses would have to cover basic benefits, including primary care, hospitalization, and prescription drugs.
Government-run plan: None. Would create nonprofit, member-owned co-ops to compete with private insurers.
Cost: About $615 billion over 10 years, but it is only one piece of a larger Senate bill.
Financing: Unspecified. Senate Finance Committee is responsible for deciding how to cover costs.
Requirements for individuals: Individuals will have to have insurance, enforced through tax penalties with hardship waivers.
Requirements for employers: Employers who do not offer coverage will pay a penalty of $750 a year for each full-time worker. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers are exempt.
Subsidies: Available up to 400 percent poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four.
Benefits package: Health plans must offer a package of essential benefits recommended by a new Medical Advisory Council. No denial of coverage based on preexisting conditions.
Government-run plan: Yes, the government would negotiate payment rates with providers.
Cost: About $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
Financing: $544 billion over the next decade from new income taxes on single people making more than $280,000 a year and couples making more than $350,000; $37 billion in business tax increases; about $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; sizable penalties paid by individuals and employers who do not obtain coverage.
Requirements for individuals: Individuals must have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers. The penalty is 2.5 percent of income.
Requirements for employers: Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Companies with payroll under $250,000 annually are exempt, although fiscally conservative Democrats have pushed for that level to rise to $500,000.
Subsidies: Individuals and families with annual income up to 400 percent of poverty level ($88,000 for a family of four) would get sliding-scale subsidies to help them buy coverage. The subsidies would begin in 2013.
Benefits package: A committee would recommend an “essential benefits package’’ including preventive services, mental health services, oral heath and vision for children; out-of pocket costs would be capped.
Government-run plan: Yes, set up and run by the secretary of Health and Human Services.
Cost: Unknown.
Financing: No new taxes are proposed, but Republicans say they want to reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Requirements for individuals: No mandates.
Requirements for employers: No mandates; small business tax credits are offered.
Subsidies: Tax credits are offered to “low- and modest-income’’ Americans. People who are not covered through their employer but buy their own insurance are allowed to take a tax deduction. Low-income retirees younger than 65 would be offered assistance.
Benefits package: Insurers would allow children to stay on their parents’ plan through age 25.
Government-run plan: No.
