Dayton Daily News: Ohio not waiting for feds to solve health insurance problem

Democrat Strickland, Republican Husted working on plans to make insurance available.

By William Hershey
Staff Writer
Dayton Daily News, September 9, 2007

COLUMBUS — — With no immediate help in sight from the federal government, Gov. Ted Strickland, House Speaker Jon Husted and other government and business leaders are gearing up to find an Ohio solution to providing affordable health care to the estimated 1.2 million Ohioans without insurance.

"I believe it is morally unacceptable that so many Ohioans and Americans don't have access to quality, affordable health coverage," Strickland, a Democrat, said in an e-mail. "And I believe we have it within our ability to make it right in Ohio."

"I believe we owe it to the people of our state to work on a state solution," said Husted, R-Kettering.

Compared to other states, Ohio's 10.7 percent uninsured rate — based on a three-year average from 2004-2006 — is relatively low. Thirty-eight other states have higher uninsured rates, with Texas' 24.1 percent at the top.

This is due partly to Ohio's history of large employers with union contracts that are likely to provide health insurance, said William Hayes, president of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, a Columbus-based independent, nonpartisan health research group. This is changing as the state continues to lose manufacturing jobs that usually came with health insurance, Hayes said.

Strickland and Husted said they hope to come up with legislative proposals by the first of next year, just as the presidential campaign heats up with health care as a top issue.

They have a private sector partner in their search for solutions.

The Ohio Business Roundtable, the nonpartisan group of chief executive officers from major Ohio corporations, has made health care reform a priority, said Richard Stoff, the group's president.

"Clearly, the top cost pressures facing business today are health care costs," said Stoff.

The roundtable helped overhaul the Ohio tax code in 2005.

A 12-member bipartisan panel of legislators, state officials, health care experts and labor leaders appointed by Strickland is expected to play a key role in coming up with proposals. The roundtable is represented on the panel.

Strickland formed the panel after Ohio was one of 14 states chosen by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to participate in a program aimed at expanding health care to the uninsured. Representatives from the foundation's State Coverages Initiatives Program already have started working with the panel.

"I want to go into this with an open mind and an open agenda because we are asking them to help us," said Strickland. "We have presented them with the core ideas we have and how we would like to proceed to expand coverage to many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of additional Ohioans."

Also, the Ohio Insurance Department, with $500,000 provided in the budget, already is working on a plan to develop a health care exchange. The idea would be to work with small businesses and insurance companies to create a marketplace where affordable health care plans would be available on a voluntary basis to uninsured Ohioans who don't have access to employer-sponsored insurance. Ideally, the cost would be cheaper than if an individual tried to buy insurance on his or her own, said Strickland.

A similar program already is under way in Massachusetts, but a key difference is that the Massachusetts plan mandates that everyone in the state have health care coverage while Strickland's proposal is voluntary.

For those who would need a subsidy to buy insurance, even at a reduced rate, Strickland has offered a suggestion that has produced a backlash from Ohio hospitals.

It would require seeking a permission from the federal government to use some of the approximately $328 million in federal money that currently goes to hospitals that provide a disproportionate share of uncompensated services to the indigent and uninsured.

Strickland said he has talked with Michael Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, about the proposal and Leavitt said the Bush administration believes some of the money could be used to purchase private coverage.

However, John E. Callender, senior vice president of the Ohio Hospital Association, said that to qualify for the $328 million in federal money the state has to put up $217 million in matching money — a match the hospitals now provide on their own.

"Our position is that all of these federal dollars, where the hospitals put up the matching dollars, should go to hospitals," Callender said.

Husted didn't seem keen on the idea, either.

"We have to be cautious about that approach," said Husted.

However, Husted said he believes he and Strickland can work together.

"We both share the same concern that we want to cover more Ohioans," he said.