Pennsylvania a key to national health reform

The Keystone State will live up to its name in 2009 as national health reform is debated in Washington.

"Your work here in Pennsylvania with Senator Specter over the next several months will be very important," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA and a recent participant in the White House Summit on Health Care.  "Your Senator Specter will cast a key vote on national health reform."

Pollack said Senator Casey has repeatedly indicated his support for doing national reform legislation this year.  Whether Senator Specter does the same remains to be seen.  "Opponents of reform will attempt to block it in the Senate with a filibuster.  As with the recent stimulus bill, Senator Specter's vote will be needed to end that filibuster."

After reminding participants that the call for reform was first raised by President Franklin Roosevelt in the '30s and then repeated by President Truman in the '40s, President Johnson in the '60s, and President Clinton in the '90s, Pollack described 2009 as a year of unusual opportunity.  "This is the chance we only get once every 15 years or so."

Pollack's remarks came at the beginning of PHAN's "Getting Everyone Covered" conference in Harrisburg on March 9th.  Throughout the day, other speakers built on his sense of urgency.   Ann Torregrossa, director of the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform, reported that over the past two years, one in four Pennsylvania adults went without health insurance coverage for a period of time.  "With rising unemployment, that number is rising," she said.

Hope was also in the air due to a spirit of bipartisan cooperation.  Republican Senator Ted Erickson and Democratic Representative Tony DeLuca  shared a forum on state reform and indicated their agreement on critical agenda items.  Governor Ed Rendell joined the conference later in the afternoon and praised the leadership of Erickson.  "If we accomplish an expansion of adultBasic this year, Ted Erickson will be the hero," he said.   

Other speakers offered very specific and constructive proposals for reform.  Dr. Renu Joshi, chief of endrocrinology at Pinnacle Health Center, described how culturally-specific, home-based education helped achieve positive and cost-effective outcomes for diabetics.  Phil Magistro of the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform described the cost savings being achieved by medical providers under new models of chronic disease management.  Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario described the prevelance of rate spikes in the small group market and how 48 states (but not Pennsylvania) have acted to bring greater equity and predictability to the cost of coverage.  

Attending the conference were 200 people from every corner of the state including consumers, medical providers, insurance administrators, and advocates.