A Healthy Alternative
April 6th, 2006 at 04:13pm Alec
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.
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Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous, Iowa Legislature, State Politics
Related Searches: iowa legislature, healthcare reform, iowan, universal coverage, health costs
2 Comments Add your own
1. Kyle Lobner | April 6th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
As it turns out, while Massachusetts and California are closing in on universal health care legislation, Maine and Hawaii already have it in place. I’ve heard no complaints about it from Hawaii; Maine’s system is still a work in progress.
Americans pay more per capita for health care than any other industrialized democracy. We’re paying for universal health care, we’re just not getting it.
2. Alec | April 6th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Sadly, Hawaii’s program has left 10% of their citizens outside the system, about the same number locked out of care in Iowa. What seems new about the Massachusetts case is the law mandating that all citizens get health insurance with the threat of financial penalties. If predictions bear out (I’m looking at the New York Times article linked in the post) the Mass plan could leave only 1% of the state uninsured, with the prospect that state health costs may still decrease. I’m excited to see how it turns out.
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