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Editorial: Covering the Uninsured

Life-and-death vote

A vote expected today in Harrisburg on a health-care plan to cover thousands of the state's uninsured could come too late for many of them.

In fact, nearly two working-age people without health insurance are predicted to die prematurely each day while awaiting the expansion of coverage sought by Gov. Rendell.

Does that sound overly dramatic? Not for those Pennsylvanians whose lack of health insurance increases their risk of early death roughly 25 percent.

That's a finding in a recently updated study by the Institute of Medicine that shows the nation's inability to provide affordable health insurance becomes a life-and-death struggle for the uninsured with late diagnoses of disease and other health woes.

Breaking out those national statistics for Pennsylvania, the consumer group Families USA last week estimated that the state's death toll could hit 710 each year.

That grim, statistical perspective alone should be enough to drive home the urgency of acting on the proposal crafted by Democratic House lawmakers.

Beyond the health problems encountered by the state's nearly 800,000 uninsured adults, the cost of underwriting medical care for those without insurance puts businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

The measure's chief sponsor, Rep. Todd Eachus (D., Luzerne), has scaled down the governor's trailblazing proposal to provide broad-based, low-cost coverage for uninsured adults, most of them employed. It would join the state's successful program of subsidized private health insurance for children.

The $1-billion-plus program proposed by Eachus could reach nearly 300,000 uninsured residents. It would offer better coverage than the state's existing - and heavily oversubscribed - adultBasic program for low-income residents.

Eachus' more modest proposal is an attempt to address Republican lawmakers' quarrel with the cost. He also has wisely embraced several GOP ideas, including an option for health savings accounts.

His bill also jettisons, as Gov. Rendell did earlier, any notion of levying a tax on businesses that don't offer health plans. Instead, the "Access to Basic Care" plan would grant incentives to small businesses providing insurance to lower-wage workers. Doctors would get a helping hand, as well, through continued state assistance in buying malpractice insurance.

Following preliminary approval last week with support from 11 GOP legislators, a final House vote is due today. Then it will be up to the state Senate - but Republican leaders already are dusting off tired excuses for inaction.

Cost is a concern, but lawmakers need only adopt Rendell's approach: paying for coverage through individual premiums and by supplementing state and federal funds with a 10-cent hike on an expanded tobacco tax.

It's a life-saving plan that the well-insured members of the Senate should be able to live with.