House, Senate Bills on Health Care

By The Associated Press

A comparison of the House and Senate health care bills:

HOUSE

-Expands health care coverage under the Children’s Health Insurance Program from 6.6 million mainly lower income children currently enrolled to 11 million children.

-The program now provides $5 billion a year in block grants to states for health insurance for children and, in some cases, adults who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance. The House bill would triple spending on it and average $15 billion a year over the next five years.

-Raises federal taxes on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. The tax on cigarettes, currently 39 cents a pack, would rise to 84 cents a pack.

-Reduces planned payments to health maintenance organizations that offer private Medicare coverage by $157 billion over 10 years.

-Increases planned payments to doctors who treat patients under traditional Medicare by $65 billion over 10 years.

-Increases subsidies to low-income Medicare beneficiaries for health care and stand-alone prescription drug coverage by $50 billion over 10 years.

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SENATE

-Expands the children’s insurance program from 6.6 million enrollees to 9.8 million enrollees, increasing its cost from $5 billion to an average $12 billion a year.

-Raises federal taxes on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. The tax on cigarettes would rise to $1 a pack.