Some policy experts want a new health care model that combines elements of the employer-based system and the Medicare program, thus creating big savings and providing coverage for nearly every American.

Health Care for America, developed for the Economic Policy Institute by Yale political scientist Jacob S. Hacker, would cover 99.6% of Americans and save more than $1 trillion in health care costs over the next 10 years, according to an analysis of the plan conducted by the Lewin Group, a consulting firm based in Falls Church, Va.

The initiative calls on employers, individuals and the federal government to share responsibility for providing affordable, high-quality health insurance.

Employers are asked to either provide coverage for their workers or pay a contribution of 6% of payroll to a new national insurance pool.

Workers who do not receive private insurance coverage would be responsible for paying small premiums to the pool, with maximum rates capped at $70 a month for single coverage, $130 a month for a single parent, $140 for a couple and $200 for families.

The government would administer Health Care for America as it currently runs Medicare, offering people a choice between a public insurance plan and a range of private insurance plans.

Federal spending of $49 billion would be needed to implement the plan. Lewin estimates, however, that national health spending would decline immediately, and that employers would save $5 billion annually, households $23 billion and states $21 billion.

"Unlike … tax credits and health savings accounts that [some] advocates always push, [this model] builds on the strengths we already have in place through Medicare and our employer-provided system to expand coverage," says Lawrence Mishel, president of EPI, a Washington, D.C.-based policy group. "The plan leverages the power of numbers in a broad national pool that allows us to reduce costs and expand coverage to virtually everyone in America."