United Way lists priorities

The United Way of Salt Lake's top legislative priorities for 2008 include a mix of financial, social and educational matters.

Financial stability, strengthened education, health-system reform and cohesive communities are the ultimate goals that the organization announced at a news conference at the Capitol.

Health-system issues are expected to get a lot of attention at the upcoming session. Scott Ideson, chairman of the UWSL Public Policy Committee and president and chief executive officer of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, said the organization supports a bill that would provide a foundation for a multi-year effort to reform the health system.

"Utah's health system faces significant and urgent challenges," he said. "Rapidly increasing costs of care — driven in large part by lifestyle choices, obesity, aging population and overall utilization — are resulting in record numbers of Utahns without health coverage."

Utahns' median household incomes rose 15 percent in the past decade, but health-care premiums grew 109 percent, he said. And the percentage of Utah businesses offering coverage has slipped from 57.4 percent in 1998 to 44.1 percent in 2005.

"Many businesses faced with these increases are shifting costs to their employers, reducing benefits or dropping coverage altogether," Ideson said.

"Meaningful reform of our health-care system will take several years to implement and must address the challenges of cost, access and quality together," he said, adding that the United Way supports efforts to have a "conservative, market-driven framework for reform that will enhance individual responsibility and consumer choice, while improving overall quality and access."

Regarding financial stability, Lane Summerhays, chairman of the organization's Financial Stability Council and president and chief executive officer of the Workers Compensation Fund, said about 600,000 Utahns are "living pretty much paycheck to paycheck."

To help, UWSL supports Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s recommended appropriation of $100,000 to help educate the public about earned income tax credits available to low- to medium-wage earners. The state has invested $500,000 so far for education, but Utahns have received $23 million in tax credits. "That's an enormous return on investment," he said.

The United Way also supports Huntsman's recommendations for $1.6 million for the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund and $1 million ongoing funding for the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Trust, as well as a bill to increase financial-literacy education in schools.