Oregon Public Broadcasting

Senator Ron Wyden says he experienced a sense of deja vu Wednesday night as President Obama pitched a health care overhaul similar to his own proposal. April Baer reports.

Point by point, the President laid out features that might have been lifted directly from Wyden's Healthy Americans' Act: a ban on pre-existing conditions, a mandate that all Americans buy health care, an insurance exchange to help them do it.

Ron Wyden  "Absolutely."

Virtually the only aspect of Healthy Americans that was not in the President's speech was its revenue stream: ending employers' tax deductions for plans they buy, and offering new tax deductions to consumers as they buy into plans.

Is Obama on board with that? 

Ron Wyden: "He has been interested in an approach that's fairly close, that's being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee on which I serve, and that's the idea of high cost insurance plans being taxed."

It's an idea that Senator John Kerry originated.

Many House Democrats, union groups, and insurance companies, say it's a non-starter. 

Much hangs on how such a tax might be structured, and whether it would substantially raise costs for those with generous health plans.