WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Lawmakers reached bipartisan agreement Wednesday on a bill to help people keep health insurance if they changed jobs or had a pre-existing illness and vowed Congress would vote on it this week.
House and Senate negotiators sealed a deal on the first major health bill to move through Congress since President Clinton's universal coverage plan died in 1994 by crafting a bipartisan compromise guaranteeing access to coverage for individuals who lose group insurance.
``The long congressional gridlock on health reform is finally over,'' said Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, a main author of the bill. ``If you change your job or lose your job, it should not mean that you lose your health insurance, too.''
Kansas Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum who wrote the bill with Kennedy told reporters she was ``thrilled'' negotiators had finally reached a deal.
Clinton in a statement asked Congress to quickly pass the bill, calling it a ``long overdue victory for the millions of Americans who live in fear of losing their health insurance.''
Wednesday's agreement follows a deal by Kennedy and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer to set up a four-year pilot program for controversial tax-deferred medical savings accounts -- a key demand of Republicans.
The final bill does not include a provision in the Senate measure to give mental health parity with physical ailments in insurance plans. Lawmakers predicted the overall bill could help 25 million Americans keep and get insurance, but outside experts have warned it may not make care affordable.
``It is truly momentous and historic,'' said Archer. ``I believe this is what the American people want from Congress. They want something positive to be done.''
The agreement reached Wednesday requires insurers to choose from one of three options to guarantee access to insurance for individuals who lose group insurance and are not eligible for another group plan.
Options include offering all current insurance plans, the two most popular plans or two special plans where the premiums are kept down by cross-subsidization from a general pool of healthy people. States could also provide individual coverage through insurance pools or other schemes.
Insurers could deny health coverage for only 12 months for a pre-existing medical condition diagnosed or treated in the previous six months. Pre-existing conditions could not be applied to newborns, adopted children or pregnancy.
The bill lets self-employed individuals deduct 80 percent of insurance costs by 2006, up from the current 30 percent. It provides a tax break for long-term health care and lets individuals with a terminal illness cash in insurance policies and get a tax free distribution.
Negotiators did not include a provision to give mental health parity with insurance coverage for physical ailments in the areas of aggregate lifetime and annual payment limits.
New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who crafted the mental health provision, angrily objected.
``I, for one, am prepared at this moment to look at any way I can to make it hard to pass that bill,'' Domenici said on the Senate floor. ``I would like to say publicly to the business community ... shame, shame on you. Shame on you.''
The bill also creates a nationwide pilot program to test tax-deferred medical savings accounts. Under four-year experiment, individuals in firms with 50 or fewer workers and the self-employed would be eligible for the accounts. But the overall number of accounts would be capped at 750,000.
Medical savings accounts allow individuals to shelter income from taxes to pay routine medical bills and roll any left-over money into the following year. They are used in conjunction with high-deductible insurance policies that kick in for medical emergencies.