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Baldwin pushes health care plan

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by Ken Harris

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin called Monday for a states-oriented approach to address what she said is a faulty national health care system.

Baldwin appeared before a crowded lecture hall in the University of Wisconsin Health Sciences Learning Center to discuss the health care proposal she co-authored and why she endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

The Health Security for All Americans Act is a bipartisan bill designed to provide federal support to states experimenting with different methods of providing health care in the hope of finding a good model to follow nationally, Baldwin said. Health care reform is important, she said, because there are approximately 47 million people in the nation who do not have health insurance.

Baldwin said she is currently in the process of finding co-sponsors for the bill she called a “glimmer of hope in a rather dismal scene.” There are about 80 supporters in Congress so far, she said.

The Association of State Insurance Commissioners recently endorsed the plan, she added.

Baldwin said she and the other authors spent about a year and a half preparing the bill, and she has grown “frustrated with the gridlock.” She added she has been “pushing really strongly for hearings” to get the bill going forward.

UW medical student Jesse Coenen said he supports Baldwin’s bill, adding it might be the only approach that could accomplish change.

“Nothing is happening at the federal level,” Coenen said. “In reality, maybe there can’t be enough change at that level with respect to the goal of universal health care.”

Baldwin added she was disappointed San Francisco’s attempt at universal health care was ruled illegal by the courts earlier this year. She said the federal government needs to encourage innovations.

“Federal regulations curtail innovations states are trying to do,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin also supports Clinton’s universal health care plan over the market-based reforms that involve creating health savings accounts or Barack Obama’s near-universal plan. She said Clinton’s health care plan has more potential than her former attempts at health care reform, which were criticized for being too elaborate.

“She’s come a long way since her 1993 plan,” Baldwin said. “She now has a plan I think she can get through Congress.”

However, Baldwin said no matter who wins the election this year Congress will receive the charge from the president to reform health care.

Addressing questions from the audience, Baldwin also said the government “needs to be more creative about using policy to incentivize prevention.” According to her, spending money now on preventing diseases will save Medicare from spending even more money treating the diseases down the road.

She added one way of doing this is to provide universal health care because people with health insurance are “much more likely to seek proactive care.”

Baldwin also addressed the need for more funding for the National Institute of Health and stem cell research. She said she has been “a very harsh critic of the president’s limits on embryonic stem cell research,” adding “we need to learn the most we can” from the controversial technology.

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Anonymous (February 5, 2008 @ 11:09am):

If you think heath care is expensive now just wait until it's "free".

Yes indeed, national health care may make the coming fiscal time-bombs of Social Security and Medicare look like lady-fingers.

Jerilyn Goodman (February 5, 2008 @ 2:26pm):

We appreciate this coverage of Congresswoman Baldwin's talk yesterday on campus. I would like to point out that her bipartisan health care bill referenced in the story is called The Health Partnership Through Creative Federalism Act (H.R. 506). You can learn more about it by going to the Library of Congress website (http://thomas.loc.gov) and typing in that bill number. Jerilyn Goodman, Press Secretary, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (WI-02).

Anonymous (April 4, 2008 @ 3:29pm):

What bill is this universal healthcare issue?

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