Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Health Issues In State Of The State Addresses

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 13 Jan 2009 - 4:00 PST

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The following highlights health issues mentioned in governors' recent state of the state addresses.

• Colorado: In his Jan. 8 speech, Gov. Bill Ritter (D) said that his health care agenda "will focus on a new strategy to move more than 100,000 Coloradans off the rolls of the uninsured." Ritter said that his administration for "the past eight months ... has worked closely with hospitals across the state on a strategy to bring in more federal Medicaid funding -- significantly more -- without requiring additional general fund appropriations." Under the plan, hospitals would pay a fee based on their patient revenue, and the fee would be "used to leverage matching federal dollars," he said. The additional funding "would be used to reduce underpayments to hospitals -- stabilizing their rates -- and to provide coverage to our most vulnerable populations," Ritter said. He added that the state's "provider fee partnership with the hospitals ... will not only help the uninsured, but slow the escalating cost of health care for struggling businesses as well" (Ritter speech text, 1/8).
  
  
• Connecticut: In her Jan. 7 speech, Gov. Jodi Rell (R) said state "revenues are declining but the need for government services is increasing," and, as "jobs continue to be lost or wages cut or frozen, our citizens will need our help for basic necessities" such as health care. She said, "Action will be taken this session, as it should be, on a host of different issues," including health care. "This will be a time of shared sacrifice," Rell said, adding, "We must take care of our most vulnerable." She said, "The cuts that must be made will be deep and they will affect every agency, every program and every service provided by state government" (Rell speech text, 1/7).
  
  
• New York: In his Jan. 8 speech, Gov. David Paterson (D) said "expanding access to health care is more important than ever" for New York because an "estimated 225,000 New Yorkers could lose their jobs in this recession" and "many of them may also lose their health insurance." He continued that the state should ask the federal government "to let us use the Medicaid savings we have already achieved" to "cover an additional 400,000 New Yorkers." Paterson said he also "will propose a bill allowing families to cover family members up to the age of 29 in their family coverage plans at their own cost." He added, "We must systematically remove the barriers until we can enroll every New Yorker who is eligible for publicly funded coverage." However, he said, "expanding coverage is not enough" because it "does not make sense to enroll more people in a broken system." Paterson added that "we still incentivize the wrong care in the wrong setting at the wrong price," so where "we are overpaying for inpatient or institutional care, we must shift funding to primary, preventive and community-based care." In addition, he said, "Preventing illness is a good investment" that "saves taxpayer money, improves patient care and unburdens our economy." Paterson also said, "the epidemic of obesity" is the "greatest threat to our children's health today" and that he and his wife will propose a "comprehensive strategy to address this challenge" (Paterson speech text, 1/8).
  
  
• North Dakota: In his Jan. 6 speech, Gov. John Hoeven (R) proposed raising the income eligibility limits for SCHIP from 150% of the federal poverty level to 200% of the poverty level to "provide thousands more children with timely, quality health care." He also said that a proposed Aged and Disabled Resource Center "will provide a single point of entry for long-term care services, whether it's home and community- based care, assisted living or skilled nursing at one of North Dakota's quality nursing home facilities." In addition, Hoeven said he plans to increase Medicaid physician reimbursement rates. In addition, he expressed his support for health and wellness initiatives in the workplace and schools, and among individual residents, including the "work of Healthy North Dakota and the North Dakota Healthcare Vision and Strategy Coalition," an alliance of health care providers working to improve the health of state residents (Hoeven speech text, 1/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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