Website Offers Interactive Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals

The Kaiser Family Foundation has developed a very useful tool for interactively comparing the leading comprehensive health care reform proposals across a number of key characteristics and plan components. From the site: "In an effort to capture the most important proposals, we have included those that have been formally introduced as legislation as well as those that have been offered as draft proposals or as policy options."

Users can select one or more of the following proposals:

• President Barack Obama's health reform proposal as reflected in the eight principles he announced in February 2009
• Senate Finance Committee
• Senate HELP Committee
• House Tri-Committee
• Senators Tom Coburn & Richard Burr & Representatives Paul Ryan & Devin Nunes
• Representative John Conyers
• Representative John Dingell
• Senator Bernie Sanders
• Representative Pete Stark
• Senators Ron Wyden & Bob Bennett
• Former Majority Leaders: Senators Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, & Bob Dole
• Representative Tom Price (Republican Study Committee)

Users can choose one or more of the following topics for comparison:

• Overall approach to expanding access to coverage
• Individual mandate
• Employer requirements
• Expansion of public programs
• Premium subsidies to individuals
• Premium subsidies to employers
• Tax changes related to health insurance
• Creation of insurance pooling mechanisms
• Benefit design
• Changes to private insurance
• State role
• Cost containment
• Improving quality/health system performance
• Long-term Care
• Prevention/Wellness
• Other investments
• Financing

The site will be regularly updated to reflect changes in the proposals and to incorporate major new proposals as they are announced. Hat tip to HealthLawProf Blog's Katharine Van Tassel (Western New England College School of Law). [JH]