WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to offer an alternative to Democrats' massive healthcare reform bill that would not raise taxes or require people or businesses to buy health insurance, the House Republican leader said on Sunday.
House Democrats last week introduced a 1,990-page bill that includes a tax on the wealthy to help fund a government-run public insurance option, which has drawn the most heat amid larger debate on President Barack Obama's efforts to revamp the nation's healthcare system.
John Boehner, the House's top Republican, said his party hoped to introduce one single bill with a "step-by-step approach" that would include allowing the purchase of health insurance across state lines, letting people group together to buy it at lower prices and ending "junk lawsuits."
The bill will include eight or nine healthcare ideas that have already been introduced separately, he said on CNN's "State of the Nation."
It will not try to cover all of the estimated 46 million people in the United States who now have no health insurance, he said. "We will cover millions more," he said, declining to give an exact number.
The Democrats' measure is expected to cover 36 million of the uninsured. It also requires people to have some kind of health coverage and all but the smallest companies to cover their workers. It also includes sweeping market reforms that would bar insurers from excluding people for pre-existing conditions or basing premiums on medical history
