Capitol groups tackle insurance woes

Health insurance — or, rather, the lack of health insurance for at least 300,000 Utahns — was a recurring topic of conversation Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

The Health and Human Services Interim Committee discussed several different approaches to increasing access to heath benefits, including the innovative Massachusetts plan that, when passed earlier this year, made the Commonwealth the first state in the nation with universal health coverage.

Earlier in the day, the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee explored a program that will help low-income Utahns buy into their employers' health plans and an advocacy group hosted a news conference honoring those who have suffered from their lack of adequate health-care coverage.

With at least two other interim committees, a legislative task force and a governor's work group studying it, access to health insurance promises to be a continuing issue for Utah policymakers.

"I think something very important is happening right now," said Rep. Brad Last, R-St. George, chairman of the Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

"I think there is an increasing awareness on the part of all legislators about how the system works, or doesn't work," he said, noting that lawmakers are facing "more and more pressure to find a creative solution."

In addition to the Massachusetts plan, members of the Health and Human Services committee discussed a proposal that would allow small businesses to buy into the state's Public Employees Health Plan.

Utah health insurance companies have objected to the plan for a variety of reasons and did so again on Wednesday, frustrating Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan.

"I'd like to see us move in a direction that at least tries to find a solution instead of the constant parade up here of why we can't do it," said Mascaro, who ran a failed bill during the 2006 legislative session to allow the PEHP buy-in.

The Legislature did pass a bill earlier this year by Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, that increases the subsidy for the little-used Covered at Work program from $50 to $150. The pilot program will help 1,000 low-income Utahns purchase health care through their employers, rather than other state-funded programs.

"One of the purposes of government is to provide assistance for those who are not able to provide for themselves," Holdaway said.

During the lunch hour Wednesday, the Anti-Hunger Action Committee paid tribute to those who have died because they lacked health insurance, some 18,000 Americans each year, according to director Bill Tibbitts.