Healthcare reform hit a major roadblock last month with the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts and the Senate democrats losing the magical 60-vote number required to pass legislation with no filibusters. However, President Obama is trying everything in his power to bring reform back from the dead.

A new healthcare proposal was released this morning on the White House’s official website. The 11-page outline highlights a $950 billion health reform proposal that is very similar to the bill already passed by the Senate. It does not include a public insurance option though.

The proposal is said “to make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy.” Its main provisions are:

• “It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today.  This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more
• It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have
• It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care
• It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions
• It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.”

One of the most important aspects of the proposal includes a measure for the creation of a Health Insurance Rate Authority, which would give the federal government more oversight over private insurers' rate increases.

President Obama is set to meet this Thursday (February 25th) with Democrat and Republican leaders in a Healthcare Summit that is designed to find a bipartisan path to reform. According to White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer “We view this [proposal] as an opening bid for the health meeting.”