US States Abandon Health Care Plans

Conservative gains in both the US Congress and in state legislatures, coupled with a focus on reducing budget deficits, have deflated optimism for individual states to extend health care insurance to more people. None of the six states that had considered such plans, which had been looked at as possible models for national health care reform, have moved forward with them.

While recent opinion surveys have indicated that the public is still concerned about health care, tight money has promp ted states to concentrate instead on "things they can achieve right now," according to Joy Wilson of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some states have changed Medicaid eligibility regulations to cover more small children, infants and pregnant women, while others are regulating managed care practices, she pointed out.

Oregon has delayed enforcement of legislation requiring employers to provide insurance to their workers, and Washington has revoked its version of such a requirement because it realized the state could not get Congress to exempt it from a law that prohibits a state from regulating health care coverage provided to employees by self-insuring companies. Only Hawaii has universal coverage.