WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many of the leading players in U.S. health care joined together as "strange bedfellows" on Thursday to propose what they called a politically practical plan to provide health insurance to more than half of the 47 million Americans who lack it.
The plan envisioned more federal funds to help more children enroll in existing public programs, new tax credits and expanding eligibility for the Medicaid insurance program. Its backers were unable to say how much this would cost the U.S. government.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the proposal -- offered as the new Democratic-controlled Congress mulls how to address the twin problems of uninsured Americans and escalating health care costs -- was who crafted it.
It was hammered out over two years by 16 groups and companies that in the past often bickered with one another, including leading drug and insurance companies, health plans, the American Medical Association, hospital groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and consumer advocates.
Dr. Jeremy Lazarus, a senior AMA official, called the participants "the major players in health care" and said the idea is "to cover as many people as possible as quickly as possible."
The AFL-CIO and the SEIU labor union that represents service workers pulled out before the plan was finished, as did the National Association of Manufacturers.
Participants highlighted what they saw as the urgency of the problem -- 46.6 million Americans without any health insurance in a rich country of 300 million people -- and pledged to work together to demand government action.
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