Parties trade shots over health-care bill

Democrats' primary concern with the Baucus bill is that it would not adequately subsidize working-class and middle-class households, who could be required to pay between 2 percent and 12 percent of their income toward insurance premiums. After Baucus' revisions, no individual who receives coverage through the insurance exchange would pay more than $3,987 a year for deductibles and co-payments; families' out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $7,973.

His changes also would make it easier for people whose employers offer unaffordable coverage to join the exchanges. And he would lower premium costs for older policyholders: While his original proposal would have permitted insurance companies to charge people in their early 60s as much as seven times more than younger customers, his modified bill would bar them from charging seniors more than four times the lowest policy cost.

Facing complaints about his primary source of revenue for the package — a tax on high-cost "Cadillac" insurance policies — Baucus also has proposed adjustments. He would increase the tax from 35 percent to 40 percent, but apply it to fewer policies, carving out exceptions for non-Medicare retirees, people with high-risk jobs and others who pay higher premiums because of their age or occupation, not because their benefits are particularly generous.

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