These days, Washington is brimming with ideas for healthcare overhaul. The latest one: a proposal by Sen. Ted Kennedy for universal coverage — and it partly throws funding back into the laps of employers.

The plan is called the American Health Choices Act. The highlights:

• All Americans would have access to “essential health care benefits,” with no annual or lifetime limits, under coverage provided through a public insurance agency.
• Employers — along with workers who are deemed financially able to contribute — would have to subsidize part of the cost of coverage.
• The government would subsidize premiums for people with incomes up to 500% of the poverty level ($110,000 for a family of four), and private insurers would have to pay out a specified percentage of their premium revenues in benefits.
• The program would pay doctors and hospitals at Medicare rates, plus 10%.
• Included in the program would be home- and community-based care for 10 million people with severe disabilities.
• Individuals would be subject to financial penalties if they did not have health insurance. The penalties would be levied as part of an individual’s income tax and would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service. Low-income individuals would be exempt from the penalties.
• The benefits of the program would be set by a panel of experts that would set minimum coverages that insurers would have to provide.
• “Dependent children” coverage would extend to age 26.
• Income limits to qualify for Medicaid would be lowered, essentially opening up such coverage to millions more.
• Funded by the federal government, states would establish “health benefit gateways” to disseminate information about premiums and benefits and assist in enrollment.
• The Department of Health and Human Services would establish the new government-sponsored plan, which would compete directly with private insurers.

The bill offers broader benefits and more government involvement than the plan being written by the Senate Finance Committee.  Senate Democratic leaders expect some merger and compromise involving the two bills, probably by the end of the summer.