Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has made public his views concerning reforming the current United States health-care system on Wednesday, when he also urged president-elect Barack Obama to make changing the nation’s present system a top priority for his administration in the year to follow.

His health-care plan, much resembling the one Obama has brought forth during his presidential campaign, firstly entails that all Americans be provided with coverage, irrespective of their pre-existing medical conditions. Obama himself has included this measure in his plan, given that it is a widely known fact that insurance companies often reject or charge extra the people who have pre-existing illness.

In addition, Baucus would set up a government-administered insurance exchange, where Americans could purchase health insurance from, along with making it mandatory for all people to get coverage when the price came to fall within their income possibilities.

Where those who cannot afford to buy health insurance are concerned, the Finance Committee chairman has stated that various other options would be made available for them via his plan.

The 89-page report Baucus has released did not contain any information on how much his plan would cost the United States government, but under the current circumstances regarding the nation’s economy, there is little hope that his ideas could be put to use. Especially since he has also revealed that his plan aimed at allowing Americans aged 55 and older to be provided with health care coverage from Medicare (presently, only people aged 65 and older are eligible for Medicare premiums), as well as at eliminating the eligibility criteria that requires disabled people to enroll as Medicare beneficiaries only two years after they have become disabled.