Last week, we were given glimpses of what Democrats in the House of Representatives were planning to do to reform health care and didn’t like what we saw.

The proposal called for placing much of the financial burden for covering medical services for all Americans on a wealthy few — an unfair practice at best.

This week, Democrats rolled out their revised version of the bill, and what we have on the table now is even worse.

While there is little room for doubt we need to rethink how we approach health care coverage in this country, replacing a broken system with another broken system is not the way to go — but that is exactly what House Democrats have in mind.

The proposal, called America's Affordable Health Choices Act, is neither really affordable nor does it involve much choice.

In addition to requiring wealthier citizens to pay for medical coverage for everyone else, the new law would require that everyone participate in either private or the government insurance programs or face a financial penalty.

That does not leave much room for “choice.”

With few exemptions, businesses would face similar requirements to provide health care coverage for employees — something that may put smaller mom-and-pop operations on the ropes financially.

While it’s a good idea to have health insurance, nobody should be required to maintain coverage. (Of course, if people opt not to take part, they should not expect to receive medical care without paying out of pocket for it, either.)

If we determine that, as a country, we need to socialize our medical system — a very real possibility since we are essentially paying for one now that does not work very well — there are better ways to go about it. Other countries have socialized systems of tiered coverage that seem to work.

But, if we expect universal health care coverage, it needs to be universally paid for.

Likewise, this patchwork of government-required coverage and private plans is an unwieldy mess that will be difficult to manage and only create more government bureaucracy.

The plan does have a few high points that need to be part of the solution — issues like protection for people with pre-existing conditions and income credits for working families.

Three House committees still have to debate the measure, and a number of Republicans and conservative Democrats are taking a stand against the legislation in its current form.

We hope they stick to their guns on this. Without major changes, the Affordable Health Choices Act is likely to cause more problems than it solves.