A State Finds No Easy Fixes on Health Care

The New York Times ^ | July 10, 2007 | KEVIN SACK

[Eric Blair 2084]

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Edward G. Rendell, an unapologetic big-city liberal who campaigned as a health care reformer, might have been expected to propose a plan to cover the 900,000 Pennsylvanians who are uninsured.

And he did so, after winning reelection last year in a landslide. But like other governors in the vanguard of health policy, Mr. Rendell also concluded that such a move would be unaffordable, and perhaps politically unattainable, without serious efforts to control costs.

As a result, Mr. Rendell’s “Prescription for Pennsylvania” included a ban on smoking in public places, a reduction in the rate of hospitalization for chronic diseases and an expansion of the role nurses play in treating patients. He even framed his proposal to provide universal access as “a form of cost containment,” emphasizing that 6.5 percent of every health-insurance premium in Pennsylvania went to subsidizing care for the uninsured, often in emergency rooms.

Mr. Rendell is learning, however, that to contain costs is eventually to pluck dollars from someone’s pocket. His plan has incited protest from hospitals, doctors, insurers and small businesses, each of them finding something to detest.

Mr. Rendell seems to be facing an uphill task. Once confident that his package would win quick approval, he now puts the odds of success at 50-50. Mr. Rendell says he is calling for shared sacrifice. “Everyone’s ox gets gored a little bit in this,” he said in an interview here. “If we’re ever going to have accessible health insurance for all Americans, we have to begin by containing costs. If costs continue to spiral out of control, there is no way the government can afford to pay for it.”

[HoosierHawk]

Translation: "Drop the chalupa, put down the beer, stub out the cigarette. Our money, our rules."

Oh! Not my beer??

[badgerlandjim]

Governor Rendell says, “If we’re ever going to have accessible health insurance for all Americans, we have to begin by getting a$$holes like me off the highway and out of our emergency rooms."

There, I fixed it, Ed.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Don’t give them any ideas. Please. Any suggestions to steal citizens’ freedoms to save the State money will be greatly appreciated.

[maryz]

the cost non-reimbursed care such are vision correction surgury has dropped

Don't worry -- wait'll they make it a "mandated benefit"! :-)

[badgerlandjim]

Governor Rendell says, “If we’re ever going to have accessible health insurance for all Americans, we have to begin by getting a$$holes like me (meaning: such as Gov. Jon Corzine, D-NJ) off the highway and out of our emergency rooms."

If Corzine's entourage wanders into PA, Rendell should have his state troopers escort him back to NJ immediately, removing an expensive health care risk from the PA taxpayers' shoulders.