A Healthy Alternative
Last Thursday , the Iowa House approved legislation aimed
to help small businesses in seeking insurance for their employees and cutting down on the large amounts of paperwork required.
While the step sounds sensible, the Iowa legislature should take on far bolder healthcare reform. Sure, the number of Iowans without health insurance is lower than the national average, but the number of uninsured has been increasing in recent years. And these official estimates may be far too low.
Given Massachusetts’ promising, innovative, bipartisan new program to approach universal coverage, surely Iowa’s legislature can do better than simplify paperwork. No Iowan should be without health insurance. And with the prospect of ballooning health costs in coming years, a similar program might even lower long-term state costs.
It’s time for the Iowa legislature to think big and end health inequality.
2 comments April 6th, 2006
