The First Senate Health Care Plan

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has released his health care plan that he plans to push in his committee and work with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee, on refining.

The bad news: There aren't too many details on financing.

The good news: So far, the plan looks an awful lot like the plan advocated by our favorite Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) during the Presidential Primary Season. For one, the plan has a requirement that everyone be covered. And as we all learned some months back, the ONLY way a health care plan can truly be "universal" is that everyone be covered.

Also, there are some extra goodies on lowering costs & improving technology. So far, the news on the health care front looks good. If we can get a plan passed that covers everyone and makes health care affordable for everyone, we can go a long way to solve the problems crippling our system today.

So what kind of health care plan do you want Congress to pass & President Obama to sign into law? How far should we go to regulate the insurance companies? How strong of a "mandate" for coverage should we have? How far should our government go in getting involved in the system?

Let's talk health care today. Consider this a wide open thread.