By ASHLEY PARKER
MARCH 27, 2014 - New York Times

WASHINGTON — Six senators, five Democratic and one independent, on Thursday rolled out a series of policy proposals they said were intended to fix and improve President Obama’s signature health care law.

Three of the Democrats — Senators Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Warner of Virginia — are up for re-election in 2014. Their unveiling of the policy prescriptions comes as vulnerable Democratic candidates in both the House and Senate are under increasing pressure to distance themselves from the Affordable Care Act.

The other Democratic senators, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, as well as Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, rounded out the group of centrists who laid out their plans in an op-ed article in Politico Magazine Thursday.

The move reflects part of a broader strategy by Democrats, who are grappling with the awkward reality of how to escape the embrace of the health care law — which passed with no Republican votes and has become a political liability — while not going as far as their Republican counterparts who are trying to repeal it.

The Democratic plan heading into the midterm elections, which has already begun to play out on the airwaves, calls on vulnerable Democrats to talk candidly about the health care law’s problems, while offering their own solutions.

“I’ve said from the very beginning that we need to make some fixes so the health care law works better for Alaskans,” Mr. Begich said, in a statement. “Alaskans want real results, which is why I have laid out a series of common sense solutions to increase choices for consumers, eliminate unnecessary burdens and make the health care law more flexible for families and businesses.”

The package of roughly a half-dozen policy proposals is intended to increase choice and affordability when consumers are choosing a health care plan, as well as to ease the burden on small businesses. Many of the proposals have already been pushed by individual senators.

Aides to the senators acknowledge that the fixes are hardly exhaustive or brand new, but they said the goal was to create a road map of specific and achievable policy goals on which to focus, which could then be voted on either individually or as a package.

After saying that the current Affordable Care Act is “not perfect,” the senators wrote, “That’s why today we are laying out some next steps to further improve implementation and ease the transition not only for individuals and families, but also for small businesses.”

Some of the measures include: adding a “Copper Plan” to the existing marketplace options (Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze), which would cost less but have a higher deductible; directing state insurance regulators to create health plans that could be sold across state lines — a move the senators believe would increase both consumer options and competition; making small-business health care tax credits available longer and making them accessible to more employers, to make it easier for small businesses to cover their employees; and offering an additional, permanent way to enroll in the health care marketplace other than HealthCare.gov, the government website whose rollout has been plagued by problems.

“Before, during and after the debate over health reform,” Mr. Warner said in a statement, “I consistently said that the Affordable Care Act was not perfect, and that Congress would have to revisit the A.C.A. to correct problems for consumers and employers as this new, improved system was implemented. We have designed some targeted, common-sense improvements to keep what works and improve what could work better for Virginia families and employers, and we will continue to look for ways to make the A.C.A. work better for everybody.”