Health insurance for children a priority for governor

Ensuring that Utah's children have health insurance will be a high priority for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in the upcoming legislative session, the director of the state Department of Health told lawmakers Wednesday.

The commitment will be reflected in the governor's budget, which will be released next month, and in his State of the State address in January, Dr. David Sundwall said.

The governor's working group on the uninsured will present legislation in the 2007 session to secure access for the state's 70,000 uninsured children and to employees of small Utah businesses, Sundwall told members of the Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

The health department estimates that there are currently at least 300,000 Utahns without health insurance.

The details of the governor's initiative are unclear, Sundwall said, because the group would like to work with lawmakers to fashion a successful program. In its early form, however, the group would like to see a "clearinghouse" in which all insurance providers, public and private, could come together and provide accessible and affordable health insurance.

Tentatively called the "Utah Health Insurance Exchange," Sundwall estimates the entity would cost approximately $1.2 million in setup funds. After that, the private, nonprofit exchange would be self-sustaining, he said.

As it relates to children, the proposal would be based on the expectation that parents be required to provide health insurance for their children. Sundwall, however, said he was reluctant to use the word "mandate."

"We don't say in our proposal from the governor, 'We are going to require parents to cover their children.' We raise the question with the Legislature," he said. "And that's a very legitimate question. We do seat belts, we do helmets, we do any number of things for our kids. So that is up for discussion."

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