PHILADELPHIA This Tuesday, Maine State Representative Sharon Treat (D, Hallowell) sought and won endorsement of the hotly contested public health insurance option from the body representing every state legislature in the country. Citing the need for bold and immediate action to stem the rising costs of health care, over three quarters of the states represented on the the National Conference of State Legislatures' Standing Committee on Health voted to include an amendment co-authored by Treat calling for a public health insurance option in the committee's official policy recommendations for federal health care reform. On Thursday, the recommendation will come up for a vote before the full body of NCSL, which represents over 7,500 state legislators across the country.
According to Treat, who authored the amendment along with colleagues from Iowa, Washington, and New Hampshire, Maine has taken the lead in making sure health insurers cant deny coverage based on preexisting conditions and other factors such as age and living in a rural area. But we can't fix health care alone. We need national health reform that establishes a floor of comparable protections and includes a public insurance option to assure that everyone can get affordable, quality health coverage.
The endorsement of the public option signals a growing consensus from state legislators in support of one of President Obama's key reform priorities at a time of escalating debate on Capitol Hill. Last month, a bipartisan group of over 700 state legislators from 48 states, including 49 from Maine delivered a letter to President Obama and Congress throwing their weight behind the public option. In the month since, over 100 legislators have added their signatures to the letter.
According to Treat, who helped circulate the letter, the growing consensus behind the public option has arisen out of acute economic necessity. Health care expenditures are rising at twice the rate of inflation, which isnt sustainable for either the state budget or our economy as a whole. Maine employers large and small are struggling to continue to provide health insurance, and the cost families pay goes up every year. The bottom line is, the high cost of health care, and the impact of the uninsured, is dragging our economy down, and we have to do something about it now.
According to Nathan Newman, Executive Director of Progressive States Network, a national organization that supports the public option and drafted and circulated the 800-signatory letter in support of it, Treat has been instrumental in building an unprecedented national coalition. For too long states have gone it alone on health care reform while Washington failed to act. Representative Treat and her colleagues across the country have made it clear that they're ready to stand up together and demand more.
In addition to the public option, the amendment also recommended a series of policy proposals from the PSN letter Treat helped circulate, including robust cost containment programs, assistance in expanding Medicaid programs, and freedom for states to set benefit requirements and other regulatory standards that exceed federal minimums.
To see a full draft of the Standing committee on Health's Policy recommendations see: http://progressivestates.org/ncsl09/healthpolicyrecommendations.pdf. To see the letter from Progressive States Network, see http://progressivestates.org/statefedhealth.
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ME Rep. Sharon Treat honored at PSN's annual galaby progressivestates35 views
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