OHIO LEGISLATURE Petition drive seeks action on universal health care

A health-insurance trade group opposes the effort for universal health care.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- A group that wants health-care coverage for every resident in the state is gearing up to collect nearly 100,000 signatures to force the Ohio Legislature to consider a proposal.
The group, Single-Payer Action Network Ohio, says health care should be a right for all citizens, not just for those who can pay.
"It's the basic solution," said Jerry Gordon, secretary of the group. "It's a big qualitative step forward.
"We know the steel workers have, by the hundreds of thousands, lost their benefits," Gordon said. "We have senior citizens choosing between food and medicine. We have people with catastrophic illness going into bankruptcy court," Gordon said.
"We are going to have an army of the uninsured," Gordon said.
The group recently got clearance from Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's office and will work to collect more than 97,000 signatures to place the issue before the Legislature.
If successful, state lawmakers have four months to consider the issue; otherwise the group can collect another 97,000 signatures to place the issue on the statewide ballot.
"It establishes health care as a right," Gordon said.
Details of proposal
Under the proposed initiative petition, state residents would receive coverage for inpatient and outpatient hospital, preventive, mental health and other care.
Coverage would be provided regardless of income or employment status, and there will be no exclusions for pre-existing conditions and no copayments or deductibles, under the proposed initiative petition filed July 14 with the state.
The coverage would be paid for using receipts from new taxes levied on employers' payrolls, receipts from taxes levied on businesses' gross receipts and increases in personal income taxes, according to the proposed initiative petition.
The proposal would mirror legislation expected to be introduced in the Legislature by Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-33rd, and Rep. Michael Skindell of Lakewood, D-13th.
Supports effort
Hagan said he supports the group's push.
"No one has control over cost increases in health care," Hagan said. "More and more companies are forcing their employees to pay for their health insurance. Many others are dropping their employees.
"When medical inflation is three times the rate of regular inflation, government has got to stop the greed of the insurance industry and the medical industry before it bankrupts our citizens," Hagan said.
The proposal is criticized from the Ohio Department of Insurance and a health-insurance trade group.
Ann Womer Benjamin, Insurance Department director, said she believed there could be problems with SPAN's proposal, including the increased taxes that businesses would have to pay to help fund a single-payer, universal health-care system.
Opposed to plan
Kelly McGivern, president and chief executive of the Columbus-based Ohio Association of Health Plans, an industry group, said her group will oppose any attempt to institute a single-payer universal health-care plan in Ohio.
"We don't think it's in Ohioans' best interest," McGivern said. Her group represents health plans that insure about 6 million Ohioans, she said.
McGivern said she believes proponents of a universal health-care plan are being "short-sighted" and that the plan they're advocating merely shifts who's paying.
Problems that could arise from such a system, according to McGivern, include potentially long waiting periods; no incentives to contain health-care costs and a potential government-run bureaucracy overseeing health care in this state.
Gordon, whose group includes labor unions, health-care providers and religious groups, said they are aiming to gather more than 140,000 signatures, likely to be filed after the November elections.
Backers of the initiative petition say if the Legislature doesn't act, they could move to place the item on the ballot in either 2005 or 2006.
Gordon said he expects a pitched battle with the insurance industry on the issue.
"We're going to be in for the battle of our lives," Gordon said.