Health Reform Still on the Agenda for General Assembly

June 20 , 2008
By Berry Friesen

With only days remaining before a very tough budget must finished, what are the chances the General Assembly will reach agreement on improving health access for the uninsured?

In part, it depends on you and me. Have we conveyed the urgency of this agenda to our Senators?

Earlier this week, Governor Rendell let it be known he will not insist on health access legislation as part of this budget. But he also said he would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Senate leaders and expand health insurance coverage before the Assembly adjourns for the summer. The Governor sounded eager for a deal! Senator Donald White, Chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, also struck a conciliatory tone in his public remarks at Wednesday’s hearing on Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care (PA ABC).

The Governor’s passion to improve health access is well-known. Is the Senate similarly motivated? We shall see. The alternative plan it announced June 10th (volunteer doctors, a network of free clinics to be developed) is a real clunker; editorial writers from across the state have panned it. I don’t imagine senators are eager to spend the election season defending HealthNetPA (otherwise known as the plan with all the holes in it). Then there is the unfinished business of extending state subsidies for doctors’ and hospitals’ medical malpractice coverage. The Senate would really like to finish that piece of work before leaving town.

In short, we have reason to believe that the Governor and Senate leaders are looking for a pathway toward agreement on health access. And they still have time to include that agreement in the 2008-09 budget.

So, the glass is half full! Now let’s step up one more time and encourage these partisans to pour more water in the glass.

Call your senator’s office first thing Monday morning and ask him/her to support smart reform. Yes, PA ABC is smart reform. But if the Senate wants to call it something else, so be it. The point is to get the job done.

What does smart reform look like?

It ends the cruel and wasteful practice of denying the uninsured access to health care until they are very sick and then spending huge sums at public expense attempting to make them well.
It provides affordable health insurance so that the uninsured can begin to participate in the same system of health care you and I have: primary care, prevention services, and chronic disease management.
It brings additional resources to the table – from the federal government, from private pay arrangement – to multiply the state’s investment.

It is not too late to make a difference. Please make your calls early in the week . . . . Monday morning would be great. Thank you!

Berry Friesen, Public Affairs Manager

PA Health Access Network

717.232.1270