In an open letter to President Obama circulated this week, more than 100 state lawmakers urged speedy passage this year of meaningful health care reform, according to a press statement from the Progressive States Network (PSN).
The letter argued that “the private sector alone has proven incapable of creating a high-quality, fair and accountable health care system that works for all families,” and that our “disjointed health care system has formed a choke-hold on our economy.”
It also called for a “robust federal-state collaboration” to deliver Americans “the choice of a public health insurance plan that is available to businesses, individuals, and families.”
PSN Interim Executive Director Nathan Newman explained, “State lawmakers have already demonstrated the policy background and political savvy to enact reform in a broad range of political climates."
Newman stated that state lawmakers have a lot of experience in creating and implementing comprehensive coverage plans, and that they should be included in the public debate on national reform. Thirty states currently offer the choice of a public insurance plan to their public employees. In recent years, Wisconsin and Connecticut state legislatures have passed bills that would open public insurance plans to the private sector. Similar measures have been introduced this year in Iowa, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Washington.
“With hopes for federal health care reform languishing on Capitol Hill for the last few decades, it's been progressive state leaders who have worked to expand public programs like SCHIP, Medicaid and public employee insurance pools to bring desperately needed coverage to their constituencies," Newman added. "If we're going to succeed in bringing quality affordable health care to all Americans, then state lawmakers must have a place at the table."
In addition to a public insurance choice, the open letter called for expanded support for Medicaid, cost containment measures, ensuring affordability, choice of doctors, and shared responsibility for financing among employers, individuals and government for financing health care. In addition, the letter urged the elimination of racial, ethnic, gender and rural disparities in health care access and coverage.
According to PSN, 100 legislators from 27 states, including 19 health care committee chairpersons, have signed the open letter to the president. And it is gathering more signatures daily. The letter will be delivered to the President this June. Read the full text of the letter here.
