Rendell makes push on health care for uninsured

HARRISBURG - With three days left in the 2007-08 legislative session, Gov. Rendell is making an 11th-hour push to deliver on his promise to expand health-care coverage for the uninsured.

Seeking a compromise with Senate Republicans opposed to spending and taxing increases, Rendell has scaled back his original 2007 proposal, which would have provided health coverage to 800,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians, and dropped a request for a tobacco tax to help pay for it.

The latest proposal, which Rendell outlined in a letter to Republican leaders last week, would add 250,000 people to the state insurance program by 2012, but they would have more limited benefits than Rendell envisioned.

The deal also would extend state subsidies to cover medical malpractice insurance for doctors.

Administration officials and Democratic legislative leaders said they would seek to forge an agreement with Republicans by the time the legislature adjourns at midday Wednesday.

"We're going to be raising holy hell on Monday to make this happen," said Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Phila.), who has championed the Rendell plan in the Senate. "But [Republicans] control the agenda."

Sen. Ted Erickson (R., Delaware), who chairs the Public Health and Welfare Committee, said he would not rule out last-minute compromises with the administration.

"We are still working," he said. "I remain one of the people optimistic on the issue."

The plan - covered equally by state and federal money - would cost $2.6 billion over five years for coverage of up to 242,650 uninsured residents.

The expansion would be introduced more slowly than originally envisioned. It would cover prescription drugs and some behavioral-health services, but would not cover eye or hearing exams or emergency dental care.

It would set aside $2.43 billion in state money to help doctors who must buy more than $500,000 in malpractice insurance.

The leading advocate for Rendell's plan in the state House, Rep. Todd Eachus (D., Luzerne), said rising job losses should be a strong incentive for lawmakers to find a solution to help working families.

He said the waiting list for "adult basic," the state-run health program for lower-income individuals, had ballooned by 50,000 names since the House passed Rendell's health-care proposal in March.

Erickson said he was looking at a compromise to include some of the 140,000 people now on the waiting list.

But he said the fiscal meltdown in the state and across the nation likely would play a role in any deal.

"We are looking at a $281 million hole in our budget," Erickson said, referring to the deficit the Pennsylvania government is running only three months into the fiscal year. "We really have to think of it in context of a worsening economic outlook . . . we have to be very responsible in terms of a plan and to not commit funds that aren't there."

But advocates for the uninsured argue that the struggling economy is all the more reason for the state to step up and help its citizens.

"We are moving into tough economic times," said Berry Friesen, as spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Health Access Network. "We need a program to serve more people and we need the federal government to help us out."

At the same time, negotiators are trying to reach a deal on the medical malpractice insurance subsidy for doctors, known as the Mcare abatement.

Erickson said that three times during this session the GOP-controlled Senate had sent to the House bills that would extend the Mcare abatement. Rendell has threatened to veto any Mcare legislation that does not include health insurance.

Officials with the Pennsylvania Medical Society have been pushing Rendell to back off that demand and to, in their words, "delink" the two issues.

"We are supportive of the need to help the uninsured, but our priority is the Mcare issue because that impacts all patients," said Chuck Moran, spokesman for the society, which represents 18,000 members, mostly physicians.

The society launched a phone drive on Friday, having members call their state senators in a last-minute lobbying effort in support of the governor's latest compromise offers.

If there is no deal by Wednesday, the process would have to start again when the next session begins in January.

Rosemarie Greco, director of the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform, said each day of delay meant more suffering for many and more people added to the rolls of the uninsured.

"The longer we wait, the longer people don't get coverage," she said. "As a result people will die, and people will get sicker, and we will still have to pay for it."