Senator Tim Kaine said Republicans could start feeling the pressure to do something on health care. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Health Care Bennet, Kaine set to introduce ‘Medicare X’ plan to expand health care

As Democrats debate how best to expand health coverage, Tim Kaine and Michael Bennet are trying to ensure the party doesn’t swing too far to the left.

The Virginia and Colorado senators next week will reintroduce their “Medicare X” plan, which would create a new public option for health insurance — an idea that was originally part of Obamacare but was jettisoned for being seen, at the time, as too progressive.


Even as it moves past current law, their measure envisions far less sweeping change than “Medicare for All” proposals backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and some of their Senate colleagues running for president.

Kaine, a former vice presidential candidate, and Bennet, who is mulling his own 2020 run, view the plan — one of a handful of center-left proposals being floated — as an alternative option for progressives who want to expand health care availability but don’t want to eliminate private insurance.

In an interview, Kaine said many Americans report high levels of satisfaction with the insurance they receive through their employers and that the goal of the Medicare X proposal is to provide another, lower cost option to people through the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

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“CMS needn’t collect a profit, they don’t have to return to shareholders,” Kaine said. “The cost of this nonprofit insurance policy would be dramatically less than for-profit insurance.”

Bennet argued that Medicare X preserves the freedom to pick a health plan and unlike Medicare for All wouldn't require a choice between mountains of red ink or huge tax increases.

“180 million people in America get their insurance through an employer-based plan and Medicare X gives people the opportunity to decide whether they want to stay on that plan,” Bennet said in an interview. “Some of the other plans take away insurance from those 180 million.”

Under their bill, to be introduced on Tuesday, people would have the option of purchasing the plan on the Obamacare individual and small-business exchanges. Members of the plan would have access to the Medicare network of doctor in addition to the benefits of other plans under the Affordable Care Act like maternity and newborn care. It would also establish a reinsurance program to reduce premiums.

The latest version of the bill also would expand access to tax credits. Obamacare allows for tax credits for people whose income is up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line. The proposal would remove that cap and allow people who make more than the threshold to be eligible for the tax credit — whether they’re on a Medicare X plan or a private insurance plan.

The senators envision phasing in the Medicare X plan over several years. By 2021, it would be available in rural areas with scarce options on the exchange and by 2024, it would be available in all areas. By 2025, the plan would expand to the Small Business Health Options Program Exchange.

Republicans have seized on the left’s embrace of Medicare for All, which has been endorsed by Sanders and other Senate Democrats running for president like Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has dubbed the idea “the Democrats’ Medicare for None” proposal. The Kentucky Republican signaled in an interview with POLITICO that he was more interested attacking Democratic ideas than leading efforts by President Donald Trump to make the GOP the “party of health care.”

Republicans have come under fire after the Justice Department’s surprise decision to endorse a federal court’s ruling to eliminate all of Obamacare, and the GOP appears eager to change the subject.

“They want to get rid of Obamacare too,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) “Presidential candidates want to eliminate Obamacare, take a wrecking ball to insurance people get from work, which is 160 million people, and go to a government-run program.”

Of course, not all 2020 Democrats are on board with Medicare for All. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has voiced concerns about the proposal; he and Bennet saw their state’s voters reject a single-payer ballot measure in 2016.

The proposal so far has no Republican co-sponsors and stands little chance of getting through the Republican-controlled Senate. But Bennet and Kaine say they could see the idea catching on.

“The design for Medicare X is that it starts in rural counties many of which are Republican,” Bennet said. “Ten years ago, I might have heard I don’t want that Bolshevik plan in my county. This time I’m hearing from Republicans, thank you for thinking of us first.”

Bennet blasted Republicans for lacking a health care plan of their own and urged them to “stop trying to litigate something from 10 years ago.”

“It’s irresponsible,” he said. “It’s pathetic.”

Kaine noted that Republicans could start feeling the pressure to do something on health care.

“You end up with this contrast that I think will be increasingly unsustainable politically where President Trump and the GOP are focused on taking health insurance away from millions,” he said. "What we're doing is offering one more option."

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.