Uninsured still a big hole in the Senate bill
Statesman Editorial board
October 16, 2009
Idaho Statesman
For hundreds of Idahoans - a small but evidently growing number - the state is the health care payer of last resort.
But Idaho's catastrophic health care account is quickly running out of money. This illustrates Idaho's stake in the health care debate, and unfortunately, it illustrates one big failing in the heavily hyped health care bill working its way through Congress.
Here's the state's dilemma. The government is on the hook for medical bills that aren't picked up by private insurance or Medicaid, the long-standing health care "public option" that covers low-income Idahoans. Counties - and, to be clear, property owners - cover the first $11,000 of an indigent claim. The state's "CAT fund" covers the rest.
Claims are up. Normally, the state covers about 1,000 claims per year. For the first three months of the budget year, the state has paid 422 claims, reflecting yet another offshoot of the recession. These claims have consumed $10.6 million of the $17.3 million in the fund.
The result is one more hit on a state budget already in the red. When legislative budget-writers met in Boise this week, they heard a request for an additional $8 million; we wonder if that will be enough.
Looking for a good argument for health care reform covering all Americans? There you go. We all pay the health care costs of the uninsured - through higher medical bills that absorb providers' write-offs, and through taxes that bankroll parachutes such as the CAT fund.
These hard realities leave us disappointed with the health care bill working its way through the Senate. Look beyond the political drama - the Senate Finance Committee's 14-9 vote, with Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe joining Democrats - and the end product would cost $829 billion over a decade and still leave 25 million Americans uninsured in 2019.
It's difficult to look at those numbers and come away impressed. And after Tuesday's vote, Sen. Mike Crapo - an Idaho Republican and Finance Committee member - cut to the chase: "If we can't base health care reform on the principles of improved access and lowered costs, then we are looking at the wrong legislation."
If Congress passes this health care bill, or something similar to it, the work product will be nothing more than an incremental step, not reform in any real sense. It will be neither comprehensive nor cheap.
And it won't eliminate the pressure on the states. The states' share of the Medicaid burden could grow. And when uninsured Idahoans fall seriously ill, the bills will continue to go right back to their de facto health insurance provider: state and county government.
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Originally posted at http://www.idahostatesman.com/editorial/story/937920.html#
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