JUDY WOODRUFF: So just, quickly, back to my question, though. If you could just answer: What do you think is the method of paying for what's over and above the savings that has the best shot of passing?
SEN. CHRIS DODD: Well, I think what Senator John Kerry has recommended today, you've mentioned it at the outset of the program. It's the subject of conversations in the Finance Committee, has some real possibilities.
Sharing that cost in ways that the industry itself could help pick up. It seems to me that, plus the savings that Doug Elmendorf mentioned, by the way, in the Budget Committee. When Sheldon Whitehouse raised the issue about savings, he acknowledged that that could help reduce these costs substantially. Don't discount that point.
linkAs an alternative, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, proposed an excise tax on insurance companies that offer coverage far exceeding the value of the average policy, now about $13,000 a year for a family.
Mr. Kerry contends that such a tax would put pressure on insurers to reduce the cost of their health plans, lower premiums and reduce the overall cost of health care.
linkOn Monday, Obama met with Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, and a handful of economists to "make sure we had exhausted all the possibilities that could help on the long-term deficit picture," Orszag said. Elmendorf delivered a serious blow last week to the House effort, along with a separate Senate health committee bill, when he testified that the measures could raise long-term health costs.
Orszag also said the White House is open to a proposal by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a Finance Committee member, to tax insurers for very generous health policies. The idea is a variation on a provision that Baucus, Grassley and others on the committee had pushed: to tax beneficiaries who receive generous policies through their employers.
Obama staunchly opposed taxing beneficiaries as a candidate, and on Monday he threatened to veto a bill that targets individuals. But Orszag said the White House was open to the Kerry alternative, noting a fee on high-value policies would "create an incentive for companies to create more efficient plans."
A senior House leadership aide said Democratic lawmakers there were keenly interested in the Kerry provision, along with other revenue measures with consensus support in the Finance Committee, to replace the wealth surtax that Baucus and others have already declared dead on arrival. "Our guys want to see some movement there," the aide said. "They're loath to vote on a tax increase if it is not going anywhere in the Senate."
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