Minnesota, Pennsylvania Governors Discuss Plans To Reduce Health Care Costs, Expand Coverage At Small Business Panel Meeting

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 03 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

At a House Small Business Committee hearing on Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) discussed strategies proposed in their states that are intended to lower health care costs and expand coverage, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Pawlenty discussed several proposed pay-for-performance initiatives, including offering incentives to providers for adhering to treatment standards developed by the Mayo Clinic and other health care authorities. He said, "We can say to small and rural providers: 'Here are the outcomes we expect; how you get there is part of the art of medicine.'" However, Pawlenty said, "We're not ready yet, nor are the databases ready yet, nor is the delivery system ready yet to pay tribute for health care outcomes ... in the meantime, as a proxy for outcomes, we want to pay for adherence to world-class standards." Pawlenty also said that individual mandates are not necessary to establishing universal health coverage and that mandates "wind up criminalizing people."

Rendell discussed his "Prescription for Pennsylvania" plan, which aims to make health insurance affordable for employers with up to 50 workers who earn less than the average state wage. Under the plan, employers would contribute $130 per month toward each worker's premium. Small businesses that contribute to workers' coverage would receive state subsidies, and workers would contribute to the cost of monthly premiums based on a sliding scale, Rendell said.

Committee Chair Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) said, "I believe it is becoming increasingly clear that addressing the problem of the uninsured requires a focus on encouraging small businesses to offer health insurance coverage" (Cooley, CQ HealthBeat, 2/28).

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© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.