United Way to unveil its health reform plan
The United Way, the Governor's Office of Economic Development and the Salt Lake Chamber have been working with about 130 business, government and community leaders for several months on reform. It remains a work in progress — a proposal for the Legislature might be ready by November — but Jason Perry, executive director of GOED, told the Business and Labor Interim Committee that it will be "a private-sector approach that would be industry-driven" and "something meaningful."
John T. Nielsen, director of GOED's Health Insurance Exchange, said the idea of a "connector" or "exchange" to solve insurance woes could take up to two years to put into effect, with the formation of a private, not-for-profit corporation getting a logistical and financial jump-start from state government.
But that did not please Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville.
"If we're putting in tax dollars to get it started and the governor is appointing the directors, it's starting to sound like a government entity," Dunnigan said. "I don't care if it's a nonprofit corporation, but using tax dollars, the governor appointing the people and requests for legislation to get it going, if it walks, talks and smells like a bureaucracy, it is a bureaucracy."
He described the connector as a way to facilitate the buying and selling of insurance, giving people a one-stop shop to get the information they need to understand health-care alternatives. The connector would assemble comparisons for insurance coverage. And instead of having an employer-sponsored health plan, the connector would be designated as the health plan and employer and employee contributions would be pooled to pay the insurance plan.
While legislators wondered if the Utah exchange proposal would be similar to a system used in Massachusetts, Natalie Gochnour, co-chair of the Health Care Working Group of the United Way of Salt Lake's Financial Stability Council, said she would characterize it "as uniquely Utahn."
Without providing much detail, she said Monday's announcement will be about the "building blocks" for reform, involving guiding principles and an insurance exchange with a lot of competition incorporated.
Recent comments
Let's get the government involved in health care. Great idea....
Bad Deal | Nov. 12, 2007 at 5:14 p.m.
