Universal Health Care Within Reach By U.S. Senator Russ Feingold As posted on TomPaine.com August 02, 2006 When it comes to health care, people’s frustration with Congress is high, and it’s justified. While Congress has been wasting its time by trying to ban marriage equality and flag burning, health care reform has been completely sidelined. Meanwhile, families are going into bankruptcy to pay their health care bills, businesses are sinking under the weight of enormous health care costs, and millions of Americans are going without care—and in some cases dying—because they are uninsured. Congress may see waiting as an option, but the American people certainly don’t. It’s time to end the stalemate over health care, and to move forward with a bill that can break the logjam and get something done. That is why I have introduced the State-Based Health Care Reform Act. My bill addresses the frustration I have heard over the years from Wisconsinites who are tired of the status quo. The mounting frustration and anguish in people’s voices as they talk about how this broken health care system has affected them or someone they love is heart-rending. It is devastating for people to go without coverage when they suddenly face a serious health condition. I recently had a woman call my office who was denied insurance because of a preexisting condition. She had suffered a collapsed lung and was forced to seek emergency room care. She now needs major surgery, but cannot afford to pay for it. Like many working Americans, she doesn’t have insurance, and she cannot afford it in the individual market. Business people used to tell me that they believed government shouldn’t get involved in offering health care. But that’s not what they say anymore. Businesses, especially small businesses, are being crushed by the enormous cost of health care. As the cost of health care continues to skyrocket each year, employers who want to keep offering coverage to their employees face questions about cutting back coverage or shifting more costs to their employees. The current health care crisis has led business owners who used to oppose the idea of government involvement to now demand that the government step in. With the need for reform so clear and so immediate, we need to move beyond the polarized debate in Congress. My bill is intended to do just that. By proposing this legislation, I hope to jumpstart the health care debate and move us toward the ultimate goal I share with so many Wisconsinites – guaranteed universal health care. We must bring coverage to the 46 million Americans who are uninsured, and this bill is a sensible first step in that direction. It proposes an approach that members of both parties can support. In order to gain bipartisan support, the bill recognizes that different states want to address this issue differently. It will take members from both parties to make real reform happen, and I am pleased to be working again with Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on this issue. Last year, we introduced a bill that would force Congress to take up health care legislation. That bill did not require Congress to take up a certain type of system. It simply would have forced Congress to begin debating proposals to move us toward universal coverage. My new bill takes a similar approach. Rather than directing states to implement a specific health care system, the bill gives states flexibility to achieve the goal of covering all their residents as long as they meet certain coverage and low-income protection requirements. My bill would authorize funding to launch pilot programs in a few states that would help those states reach full coverage. The bill also creates a Health Care Reform Task Force of which the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be a member. The Task Force would review applications from states that volunteer for the program, green light selected states to implement their proposal as a five-year pilot program, and review the results annually. The Task Force would then report back to Congress on the pilot programs. The bill doesn’t raise the deficit—it is completely paid for. That means the bill’s funding will be available as soon as it’s passed into law so that health care reform can be implemented right away. To turn a blind eye to the families struggling to pay health care costs, the business owners who can no longer afford to provide their employees’ insurance, and the 46 million Americans who wake up each day without health insurance is simply inexcusable. Let’s end the heath care crisis now and answer America’s call. By offering states flexibility that fuels innovation, real health care reform is within reach.