FACTBOX: Details of Baucus plan for U.S. healthcare reform

(Reuters) - The Senate Finance Committee has begun consideration of a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Baucus plan, with a price tag of about $900 billion, calls for sweeping insurance market reforms and payment system changes, as well as requirements for all citizens and legal residents to buy insurance.

It does not include a controversial government-run "public" insurance option but calls for non-profit cooperatives to create competition in the insurance market and reduce costs.

Here are the updated details of the proposal put forward by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus:

INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS

* Creates state-based exchanges where individuals and small businesses can use the Internet to shop for insurance.

* Four categories of minimum benefits would be offered through the exchange.

* A policy offering catastrophic coverage for young adults, a so-called "young invincible" plan, would be offered.

* Beginning in 2013, insurance companies would no longer be able to exclude people from coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Limited-benefit plans and lifetime limits on coverage would be barred. Insurers would be prohibited from rescinding health coverage.

* Provides for the sale of national plans with uniform benefits across state lines.

HEALTH COOPERATIVES

* The proposal does not contain a new government healthcare plan to compete with private plans, which is backed by Obama and liberal Democrats but opposed by Republicans and health insurers.

* The proposal provides for the creation of non-profit "consumer operated and oriented" plans or cooperatives.

* Federal loans would be provided to help with start-up costs and federal grants would be provided to meet state solvency requirements.

* The cooperatives would compete with private insurers in the non-group and small-group insurance markets.

MANDATES AND AFFORDABILITY MEASURES

* Beginning in 2013, all U.S. citizens and legal residents would be required to obtain health coverage.

* Provides a sliding scale of tax subsidies to help low and middle income people, up to 300 percent of poverty-line income, buy health insurance.

* People whose income is 300 to 400 percent above the poverty line would get credits if premiums exceed 12 percent of their income.

* Limits out-of-pocket expenses for individuals and families between 200 and 300 percent of poverty. In 2010 the limits would equal $3,987 for an individual and $7,973 for a family.

* Cost-sharing subsidy available for those between 100 and 200 percent of poverty-line income.

* The proposal allows an exemption for those who cannot afford coverage.

* Failure to purchase insurance would result in a penalty of $750 per individual with a maximum of $1,500 for families with incomes between 100 percent and 300 percent of poverty. People below 100 percent of poverty would not be subject to a penalty.

* For those with income above 300 percent of the poverty line, the penalty for failing to purchase a policy is set at $950 per individual with a maximum of $1,900 per family.

* Medicaid, the healthcare system for the poor, would be expanded so everyone up to 133 percent of poverty-line income could qualify.

* Employers would not be required to offer health insurance but firms with 50 or more full-time workers would pay a fee for employees who get policies subsidized by federal tax credits.

* No fee would be imposed for workers enrolled in Medicaid.

REVENUE-RAISING FEES AND TAXES

* An excise tax of 40 percent would be levied on insurance companies for health plans above $8,000 for singles and $21,000 for families. The tax would apply to self-insured and group-market plans but not to plans sold in the individual market. Threshold would be indexed for inflation plus 1 percent.

* Insurance policies for retired people aged 55 and higher who are not eligible for Medicare as well as workers in high risk professions, such as coal mining, would have a higher threshold of $8,750 for singles and $23,000.

* Health insurance providers collectively would pay an annual fee of $6.7 billion starting in 2010. The fee would be allocated by companies' market share.

* Pharmaceutical companies collectively would pay an annual fee of $2.3 billion, allocated by market share.

* Medical device makers collectively would pay an annual fee of $4 billion, allocated by market share. Some items sold at retail for less than $100 would be exempted from the fee calculation.

(Reporting by Donna Smith in Washington; Editing by David Alexander) (For more coverage of U.S. healthcare reform [nN20512341])