The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-9 to pass a healthcare reform proposal (known as the Baucus Health Bill) that would improve access to care to most Americans.

The legislation meets the standards recommended earlier by President Obama, that it would cost less than $900 Billion, that it doesn’t add to the national deficit and that it would increase insurance coverage (from 83% to 94% of Americans).

The proposed bill does not include a public insurance option. A public insurance option means a government-run health insurance plan that is similar to Medicare but for all ages.

Instead, health cooperatives and new insurance exchanges would allow coverage to around 25 million people. A health cooperative is an entity made of a health insurance plan and a collection of healthcare providers (hospitals and physicians) that is controlled by its own members — the insured people. The health insurance exchange means that there would be a setting where the newly created cooperatives and the private insurance plans would be brought together to compete, so individuals and small companies can shop around, compare prices and coverage, and select a plan.

Moreover, an additional 11 million people would qualify to enroll for Medicaid under the new proposal. And people earning between 133% and 400% of the federal poverty level would receive subsidies to purchase health insurance.

However, the passing of the proposal does not mean that we are done with healthcare reform.

This Senate Finance Committee proposal will now be combined with legislation from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed earlier this year. Debate on the merged bill is expected to begin later this month.

For a review of all reform bills, please visit my previous post entitled "Making Sense of the Various Healthcare Reform Proposals"