From Deseret News archives:
Two Utahns leading charge on health care
The director of the Congressional Budget Office says the rising cost of health care, reflected in huge Medicaid and Medicare expenses, threatens to swamp the federal budget and is a far scarier problem than Social Security and other entitlement programs. I'm personally aware of a number of young families whose chief breadwinners work for a small companies that don't provide health insurance. For them, this isn't just a theoretical problem. It's a crisis.
Clearly, our state and our country have a big problem and, thankfully, policymakers are focusing on it. Health-system reform is quickly emerging as the top issue for 2008.
No perfect prescription exists for comprehensive reform. It will be a long and difficult task requiring many compromises and the cooperation of many stakeholder groups. No one will be totally happy.
Two of the Legislature's top leaders, House Majority Leader David Clark and Senate Assistant Majority Whip Sheldon Killpack, are leading the charge, supported by able legislative staff. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., his top policy advisers and experts in the Department of Health are fully engaged with lawmakers. In addition, the state's top business leaders and nonprofit organizations have been studying reform proposals for several months. (I have provided consulting work for that coalition, including the Salt Lake Chamber.)
Most importantly, the key stakeholder groups, including consumers, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, brokers and agents, and many others, have agreed to work cooperatively to find solutions. They obviously don't agree on every matter but are at the table in good faith.
Recent comments
I am excited for a government solution to health care. The...
Geoff | Dec. 17, 2007 at 9:22 p.m.
One way to lower our nation's health care costs is to make curing...
Eric | Dec. 17, 2007 at 2:06 a.m.
Relying on the market to deliver a health care solution is a pipe...
Mike | Dec. 16, 2007 at 10:53 p.m.
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