As U.S. Congress members continue to battle about health care issues on the House and Senate floor, the debate also is being waged behind the scenes along partisan lines.

This newest proposal passed in the House, called the access health care bill, calls for the expansion of health coverage by reaching uninsured Americans.

Its provisions include allowing different small businesses to combine funds for employee health insurance, making direct health insurance fully-tax deductible and creating tax-free savings accounts for individual medical expenses.

Jess Goode, press secretary for Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, said the access health care bill is attached to the patients bill of rights, but both bills were passed individually by the House.

"The Republicans passed a rule that said any health care bill passed in the House would be automatically attached to the access health care bill," he said. "The Republicans attached the health care bill to the patients bill of rights in an attempt to kill it."

But even if the bill passes in the Senate, it is expected President Bill Clinton will veto it, said Dave Schnittger, press secretary for John Boehner, R-West Chester.

"It is ironic that (Vice President Al) Gore gave a speech calling for legislative action on precisely this issue," he said. "Many of the proposals that Gore has in his platform are identical to the ones that Clinton wants to veto. The White House's real interest is not patients, but finding good politics. The president would be rushing to sign this if he were really interested in helping."

Supporters of the bill say this is an opportunity for Americans who are getting off welfare to not only have a job, but also have health insurance.

"Many Americans are moving off welfare and into jobs in which the employers can't provide health coverage," Schnittger said. "So making sure these newly empowered working Americans have access to health insurance is one of the most important goals."

He added that giving small businesses the ability to offer health insurance to their employees would extend health care coverage to 6 million Americans.

While the bill includes some good things, it is not without drawbacks, Goode said.

"The bill provides tax shelters for the rich - they are called tax free savings accounts for medical expenses," he said. "The problem is that you drain healthy folks away from insurance and it will kill the Medicare system."