The House Republicans have offered an alternative to PelosiCare that eschews a big-government takeover of health care and works on the cost-control side of the equation:

The Congressional Budget Office Wednesday night released its cost analysis of the Republican health care plan and found that it would reduce health care premiums and cut the deficit by $68 billion over ten years.

The Republican plan does not call for a government insurance plan but rather attempts to reform the system by creating high-risk insurance pools, allowing people to purchase health insurance policies across state lines and instituting medical malpractice reforms.

And CBO agrees that it does, in fact, lower costs. (”According to CBO, the GOP bill would indeed lower costs, particularly for small businesses that have trouble finding affordable health-care policies for their employees. The report found that rates would drop by 7-to-10 percent for this group, and by 5-to-8 percent for the individual market, where it can also be difficult to find affordable policies.”) It cost only $61 billion versus the $1.05 trillion for PelosiCare. Plus, the “CBO found that the Republican provision to reform medical malpractice liability would result in $41 billion in savings and increase revenues by $13 billion by reducing the cost of private health insurance plans.”

What’s in it? Well, some popular, noncontroversial items:

The Republican plan has adopted some of the more modest Democratic provisions. It too would make it easier for young adults to remain on their parents’ health policies. It also would end the controversial insurance practices of imposing annual or lifetime limits on benefits and of canceling coverage after a policyholder becomes sick.

And rather than give more power to the federal government to address the nation’s healthcare problems, the Republican plan looks to states, market forces and individuals.

Their bill would provide aid to the states to form “high-risk” insurance pools that would cover people — including those with preexisting conditions — who cannot get coverage through their jobs or in the individual market. The GOP bill also would provide incentive grants for states that reduce premiums and the ranks of the uninsured.

Small businesses would be encouraged, but not required, to cover their employees under provisions that would make it easier to band together to get group rates.

And it would make it easier to buy insurance across state lines and expand health-savings accounts.

Not surprisingly, Democrats are grousing that it doesn’t do much to expand coverage. But that wasn’t the point. The aim was to look at the overwhelming majority of Americans who have insurance or who might want to (not be forced to) buy insurance and make it cheaper.

We’ll see if Pelosi allows a vote on it, or if she can even muster the 218 to pass her gargantuan measure. And after Tuesday, she might need some votes to make up for potential defections from Virginia. There are a couple Democrats who might want to preserve their re-election prospects.

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