Details of a provision, to be included in the Senate health care overhaul bill, for the government to sell insurance in competition with the private market:
■ Probably beginning in 2013, insurance purchasing “exchanges’’ would be open to people buying coverage on their own as well as to small businesses. Buyers could choose from private insurance plans or from the government plan, which probably would be cheaper because it wouldn’t need to turn a profit.
■ The public plan would be in effect nationwide, but states could, starting in 2014, opt out of it.
■ There are some proposals under consideration for how states could opt out. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who initially came up with the idea, proposed requiring states to pass laws in order to exit the public plan.
■ The public plan would get startup money from the government, to be repaid over time, and the plan would be paid for by participants’ premiums. Rates paid to providers would be negotiated by the government.
