Utah County commissioners reject national reform resolution

PROVO — Utah County commissioners struck down a nationwide county resolution for federal health-care reform last week.

The resolution, Commissioner Larry Ellertson said, was too quick to move forward with the national health-care plan and didn't address issues such as insuring the most people at the least cost.

The three commissioners unanimously agreed to reject the document proposed by the National Association of Counties — a nationwide county organization independent of state and federal governments — in their weekly public meeting.

Ellertson said the resolution at first looked like something the commissioners could approve, but after seeing the final draft Tuesday morning and reading the specifics for Utah County, all of the commissioners had concerns.

"It was more liberal than we were comfortable with," Ellertson said.

Other counties around the nation have had or will have this same resolution on their county agendas. Utah County won't be the only one that doesn't approve the resolution, said Ellertson, who doubts the resolution will have any effect on the national health-care debate.

Utah County might even draft its own health-care resolution in the future, he said.

Nationally, those who want to move forward with the health-care plan may use the resolution as support from certain counties, Ellertson said. But the opposing side will point out the counties that did not sign.

"It will be interesting to see what happens with it," he said.

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