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Health-Care Bill Now Aims Toward Universal Coverage

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 09:01 CST

By Phil Kabler, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

Jan. 18--When the bill advances out of the House Finance Committee today, Gov. Joe Manchin's relatively modest health-care initiatives will morph into an ambitious plan to provide health coverage for all West Virginians.

Committee members are expected to vote this afternoon on a bill that takes Manchin's proposals -- to provide low-cost clinic-based preventive-care programs and to offer a bare-bones, $99-a-month health insurance coverage -- and add broad, new mandates that could lead to health coverage for 292,000 uninsured West Virginians by 2010.

Many committee members were caught by surprise by the new version of the bill (HB4021), which emerged Tuesday morning.

Several raised concerns about piggybacking universal health care onto the governor's agenda, and also raised doubts about whether the new proposal would work.

Said Delegate Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, "So, the goal -- if everything goes as planned -- is to have universal coverage consisting of we-don't-know-what, paid for by we-don't-know-who."

As proposed, the new bill would create a 21-member Commission on Health Care Reform, made up of representatives of state health-care agencies, the state's medical schools, doctors, hospitals, business, labor, the House and Senate, and the public.

The commission would have to meet deadlines for initiating the governor's proposals, leading up to developing a plan to provide health-care coverage for all West Virginians, beginning in 2010.

"This bill looks like it's putting us on course to be the first state with universal health care," Palumbo said.

Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, said he supports Manchin's initiatives, but added, "To incorporate a directive toward universal health care into this bill requires a whole lot more thought and direction."

Delegate Mike Hall, R-Putnam, said he was concerned the commission would become an expensive bureaucracy.

Besides paying commissioners $150 a day plus expenses, the bill authorizes the commission to hire one full-time director and "other staff as needed," to be housed in office space that would be located near the Capitol.

"I'm just not sure the study commission will get us anywhere," Hall said. "I've seen this done before: another layer of governance to do what's been tried by many without success."

House Finance Chairman Harold Michael, D-Hardy, said the new bill is a joint effort by him, House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, and committee attorneys, to come up with a more rational plan for the billions of dollars the state spends each year on health care.

"There's no question in my mind that amount of money could be spent differently and deliver, if not universal health care, comprehensive health care," Michael said.

Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said administration staffers were analyzing the new version of the bill Tuesday evening.

"We want to give it a thorough review," she said, adding, "We want to do everything possible to make sure the original purpose of the governor's bills stay intact."

The new version of the bill could set up a House-Senate tug-of-war, as occurred two years ago when House leadership issued the sweeping Pharmaceutical Availability and Affordability Act in a surprise move early in the 2004 regular session.

That set up a session-long showdown between the House leadership, which wanted to mandate deeply discounted prices for prescription drugs sold to the state, and the Senate, which preferred to use the price benchmarks as the basis for negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.

To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348-1220.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

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Source: The Charleston Gazette

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