Capitol groups tackle insurance woes
The Health and Human Services Interim Committee discussed several different approaches to increasing access to heath benefits, including the innovative Massachusetts plan that, when passed earlier this year, made the Commonwealth the first state in the nation with universal health coverage.
Earlier in the day, the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee explored a program that will help low-income Utahns buy into their employers' health plans and an advocacy group hosted a news conference honoring those who have suffered from their lack of adequate health-care coverage.
With at least two other interim committees, a legislative task force and a governor's work group studying it, access to health insurance promises to be a continuing issue for Utah policymakers.
"I think something very important is happening right now," said Rep. Brad Last, R-St. George, chairman of the Health and Human Services Interim Committee.
"I think there is an increasing awareness on the part of all legislators about how the system works, or doesn't work," he said, noting that lawmakers are facing "more and more pressure to find a creative solution."
Utah health insurance companies have objected to the plan for a variety of reasons and did so again on Wednesday, frustrating Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan.
"I'd like to see us move in a direction that at least tries to find a solution instead of the constant parade up here of why we can't do it," said Mascaro, who ran a failed bill during the 2006 legislative session to allow the PEHP buy-in.
The Legislature did pass a bill earlier this year by Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, that increases the subsidy for the little-used Covered at Work program from $50 to $150. The pilot program will help 1,000 low-income Utahns purchase health care through their employers, rather than other state-funded programs.
"One of the purposes of government is to provide assistance for those who are not able to provide for themselves," Holdaway said.
During the lunch hour Wednesday, the Anti-Hunger Action Committee paid tribute to those who have died because they lacked health insurance, some 18,000 Americans each year, according to director Bill Tibbitts.
"This is a national crisis (that) leaders in other states are beginning to address," he said.
Amber Izarraraz's 57-year-old aunt died earlier this year from complications from a decaying tooth. Without health insurance, the Utah woman was unable to find a dentist who would see her, Izarraraz said. She eventually got into a free clinic to have the tooth pulled, but the infection had already spread.
After 21 days in the hospital, a coma and several strokes, the woman passed away.
"I still wonder if she would be alive now if she had received the help she so desperately needed," Izarraraz said.
The Anti-Hunger Action Committee intends to gather 10,000 signatures in favor of an amendment to the state constitution that would require the state to make sure all citizens have access to basic health care.
"I think this constitutional amendment will help our Legislature remember what the basic moral values are of the people of our state," Tibbitts said.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com
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