Chafee plan

Primary sponsor: Sen. John Chafee (R) of Rhode Island with Senate support from both parties. The Chafee plan would require all Americans as individuals to buy health insurance. A national commission would determine a standard package of health benefits that can be offered at reasonable cost. The poor would be subsidized out of savings from the system, so that it remains cost-neutral to the federal budget.

Employers are required to offer health plans to their employees but not necessarily to pay for them. Benefits beyond the standard package would no longer be tax deductible.

Insurance companies would be barred from refusing to insure people with health problems and limited in how much more they could charge them.