Rendell reiterates need for legislation to cover uninsured

Gov. Rendell renewed his call yesterday for state lawmakers to enact legislation that would give Pennsylvania's nearly 800,000 uninsured adults the opportunity to buy health-care coverage.

Speaking at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on City Avenue, Rendell said fast action was needed on the "intolerable" problem of the uninsured.

"In the richest country in the world," he said, "everybody should have access to affordable health insurance."

Rendell was flanked by three Philadelphia Democrats - State Sens. Vince Fumo and Vincent Hughes and State Rep. Kathy Manderino - and doctors representing orthopedic surgeons and other specialists who support enactment of a bill by Valentine's Day.

"We have waited too long for the federal government to get this done," Hughes said. "If we got this done by Valentine's Day we could start enrolling people on Sept. 1."

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware and Chester) said the state GOP was willing to discuss the governor's health-care proposal but had concerns about whether it met federal legal requirements and about the cost and long-term funding sources.

"We must really proceed cautiously, not with some artificial deadline," Pileggi said, particularly "at a time when the country and the state are looking at an economic slowdown."

The plan would cost an estimated $1 billion a year. Rendell envisions several funding sources.

After his proposed 3 percent "fair share" assessment on businesses that don't offer insurance to workers was shot down last year, Rendell proposed tapping $267 million of the surplus in the little-known Health Care Provider Retention Account.

The account, funded with a 25-cent-per–pack cigarette tax, was set up to help pay doctors' malpractice insurance costs. The account surplus is now more than $400 million and should grow to $500 million this year.

Rendell also proposed raising $120 million a year by increasing the cigarette tax by 10 cents per pack and by taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco products for the first time.

Additional money for the plan would come from the federal government, the state's Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, and the employers and individuals who buy into the insurance program.

Rendell first offered his Cover All Pennsylvanians plan a year ago as part of a larger package to improve health-care quality, reduce medical errors, eliminate hospital-acquired infections, hold down medical costs, and improve treatment of chronic conditions such as diabetes.

Individuals could buy state-sponsored health insurance from private insurers for about $280 a month. The state would subsidize premiums for low-income people.

In addition, low-wage businesses with 50 or fewer employees could enroll their workers. The employers would pay $130 a month, with employees picking up the rest - again with subsidies for low-income people.

Rendell will be joined at a rally today by 25 uninsured Pennsylvanians he met while traveling around the state promoting his plan.

Rendell also seeks legislation to expand the state insurance commissioners' power to regulate health insurers.

He said yesterday that the legislature must act before rising premiums led more businesses to drop coverage for workers and thousands more people across the state become uninsured.

That, Rendell argued, would only add to the 6.5 percent premium burden each person with insurance already pays to care for their uninsured neighbors.