BOSTON, May 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate debate is now focusing on a Republican plan to allegedly allow health insurers to ignore state-mandated benefits.

Democrats said the GOP bill allow insurers to ignore Massachusetts' new universal health insurance law during charging older and sicker people far higher premiums, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.
Supporters said that the plan is designed to reduce the number of uninsured residents through helping small businesses jointly purchase less expensive insurance for their employees, the Globe said.

But U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the ranking Democrat on the Senate's health committee, said the newspaper the Republican plan would most likely force older residents and those with major health problems from the insurance market, while allowing insurance companies actually to offer sub-par coverage.

"We (in Massachusetts) have passed a good bill that will cover all the people in our state, no matter what their illness, no matter what their sickness,"Kennedy said. "This legislation on the floor of the United States Senate would effectively undermine that, and kill that legislation."

The Republican bill states it "shall supersede any and all state laws" regarding mandated health coverage, the Globe said.