WASHINGTON — For consumers, the health care plan unveiled Wednesday by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., comes with costs and benefits, rights and responsibilities.
Here’s a look at how consumers in different circumstances would be affected:
• Self-employed head of household: Baucus would eliminate onerous insurance practices, such as denial of coverage due to a pre-existing health problem.
But subsidies in the plan may not be enough to make coverage affordable for all middle-class families, who would be required under the bill to carry insurance.
A family of three earning about $55,000 — three times the federal poverty level — would have to pay 13 percent of its income.
That’s roughly $7,100 a year. It compares with costs of about $5,500 under the House bill and $4,300 in the Senate health committee bill.
• Senior covered by Medicare: Seniors would get a 50 percent discount on medications if they fall into the “doughnut hole” coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug benefits. At least 3 million a year get caught in the gap.
Medicare recipients also would get a free annual wellness visit with their doctor, to focus on ways to stay healthier.
Coverage for end-of-life counseling, which caused an uproar when it was included in the House bill, isn’t part of the Baucus plan.
Coverage for preventive care would be expanded.
• Single woman in her 20s: People in their 20s — called the ‘young invincibles’ by policy experts — account for a sizable share of the uninsured.
Under the Baucus plan, they’d be required get coverage and pay into the pool. But depending on income, they’d be eligible for subsidies they can’t get now.
They’d also have the option of buying a lower-cost plan, tailored to those 25 and under, which would cover mainly preventive care and catastrophic medical costs.
Insurers would not be allowed to charge women more because of gender, a practice that is now common. And health care plans would have to cover prenatal care and pregnancy.
Coverage for abortion continues to be controversial.
Baucus said his plan would not allow federal funds to be used to pay for the procedure, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
