The Senate Finance Committee is exploring whether to impose a mandate that would require individual Americans to purchase health insurance, which has proven controversial in places like Massachusetts where it has been tried.
The idea comes in a 63-page "policy options" paper released Monday by the committee ahead of a private negotiating session Thursday, where it will debate options to expand access to health coverage, as called for by President Barack Obama.
The paper refers to the requirement to buy insurance not as a mandate but as "a personal responsibility" to own health coverage.
Obama opposed an individual mandate during the campaign -- and frequently criticized his primary election opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for proposing one. But since taking office, he has declined to rule out any specific proposals.
In addition, the committee will weigh three options for a public health insurance plan that would allow all Americans to buy coverage through the government for the first time.
But the committee might also reject the public plan all together, and rely instead on a "reformed and well regulated private market" to expand access to health insurance – a move that could help a sweeping health overhaul draw some Republican support.
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