Bipartisan Support Grows For Health Care Reform Bill

Feingold welcomes Collins’ support for effort to cover the uninsured

May 22, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) welcomed the support of Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) for the State-Based Health Care Reform Act, a state-based approach to ensure all Americans receive health care coverage.

Additional support for the bill, which Feingold authored with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, coincides with a Badger Poll conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center that finds a majority of Wisconsinites think states would do a better job reforming the health care system rather than the federal government.

The Feingold-Graham bill, which Collins is now cosponsoring, would launch pilot programs in several states to achieve health care coverage in the best way the states see fit. States could use single payer systems, expansion of current programs, market-based reforms, or adopt completely new ideas in their efforts to cover the uninsured. The bill, also cosponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), was originally introduced in 2006 to break the political stalemate in Congress preventing health care reform.

"I am so pleased Senator Collins has joined this bipartisan effort to ensure all Americans have access to good health care,” Feingold said. “It is long past time for Congress to break the logjam preventing action on health care reform. As I continue to hear from Wisconsinites concerned about the state of our health care system, I will keep pushing legislation to give states the flexibility they need to develop plans to bring health care coverage to all their residents."

Senator Collins said, “This initiative which will help to ‘jump start’ our health care reform efforts by encouraging states to adopt innovative programs to make health coverage more available and affordable and to reduce the numbers of uninsured. The states have long been laboratories for reform, and they should be encouraged in the development of innovative programs that can serve as models for the nation. I am pleased to join Senator Feingold and applaud his efforts to cover the uninsured.”

Feingold-Graham-Collins State-Based Healthcare Reform Act

* Authorizes funding for pilot projects so that a few states can ensure health care coverage to all residents.
* Gives flexibility to states to use own approach to achieve health care coverage for all, as long as they meet certain coverage requirements and provide low-income protections.
* Pilot programs would last for five years and would be funded through a grant application program overseen by the Health Care Reform Task Force established in the legislation.
* The Task Force would evaluate state applications, select state projects, and oversee implementation of the states’ proposals.
* Participating states will be required to submit an annual report to the Task Force detailing their progress.
* The Task Force will be responsible for submitting an evaluation of all pilot projects to Congress at the end of the initial five-year grant period. The recommendations will be based on states’ experiences, and the bill requires congressional debate of these recommendations and findings.

More information on Feingold’s 2008 bipartisan initiatives can be found here: http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/releases/07/12/20071228.html.

More information on the Badger Poll conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center can be found here: http://www.uwsc.wisc.edu/BP26Release4_HC2008.pdf.

Source: Senator Russ Feingold

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