States will provide leadership with or without a federal health care bill

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De 50 governors gaan dus doen wat het Congress niet voor elkaar krijgt.

Groet / Cees

PS. De governors kennen dus kennelijk de statistieken niet die aangeven
dat er nog een golf huisonteigeningen komt?

Of is dat een soortgelijke houding als Balkenende laat zien? We gaan ons
alleen druk maken om de dingen die NU op tafel liggen, niet om de dingen
die we weten dat ze er aan komen?

February 21, 2010
States Have Not Yet Seen the Worst of Economic Times, Governors at
Meeting Say
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/us/21govs.html
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — Although the national economy has begun to bounce back,
governors said Saturday that the worst was yet to come at the state
level, where revenues are still falling short of projections.

“State revenues continue to deteriorate, as most states are witnessing
monthly totals lower than their recent forecasts, which have been
revised downward,” said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, the chairman of the
National Governors Association, which opened its winter meeting here on
Saturday.

Mr. Douglas, a Republican, said the fiscal situation was “fairly poor
for most states around the country.” And a report issued by the
association predicted that the fiscal year starting July 1 would be “the
most difficult to date.”

Health care was another pressing issue on the agenda. A number of the
governors, some of them Democrats, were less than enthusiastic about
elements of the sweeping health care legislation championed by President
Obama and Democrats in Congress.

Governors said they needed more latitude to devise health insurance
programs tailored to the needs, priorities and fiscal capacity of their
states.

Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, a Democrat, said his state was
doing fine with its requirement for people to obtain health insurance.

But Gov. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat who is vice
chairman of the National Governors Association, criticized proposals
that would require everyone to carry insurance with benefits specified
by the federal government.

“One size does not fit all,” Mr. Manchin said. “We need flexibility to
make sure our citizens are insured. I should not be mandated to take
care of somebody who is having a hard time financially but is very healthy.”

With health legislation stalled in Congress, governors said they were
moving ahead on their own to transform the health care system, improve
the quality of care and hold down costs.

“To be perfectly honest,” Mr. Douglas said, “I had expected that we
would be here today talking about implementation of a new national
health plan enacted by Congress. But we cannot wait for the federal
government. We are going to move forward. We will provide leadership
with or without a federal health care bill.”

Michelle Obama, the first lady, received a warm welcome from the group
as she made an impassioned plea for state efforts to reduce childhood
obesity.

“We cannot solve our health care problems unless we address our
childhood obesity problem, too,” Mrs. Obama said.

Mrs. Obama said health costs would continue to soar if children
continued to stuff themselves with salty, high-fat foods that
contributed to obesity — and to a higher risk of diabetes, high blood
pressure and heart disease.

Even as the governors debated ways to tackle their financial problems,
some said the situation could have been worse. Governor Douglas said the
recession might have been deeper and longer if Congress had not approved
a $787 billion package to simulate the economy last year.

The new governor of New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, a Republican,
said that while the federal aid had helped states, “it really just put
off difficult choices.”

Other governors said they were dismayed by the failure of Congress to
pass legislation to help create jobs and resuscitate the economy.
States, they said, were paying a price for the inaction on Capitol Hill.

“Because of the decline in state revenues,” Mr. Douglas said, “43 states
cut $31 billion from their budgets in 2009. For fiscal year 2010, even
with nearly $30 billion in new revenue, 36 states have been forced to
cut $55 billion. Thirty states have cut elementary, secondary and higher
education.”

Given these problems, governors of both parties expressed concern about
plans by Democrats in Congress to expand Medicaid, the program for
low-income people.

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, the chairman of the Republican
Governors Association, said the health bills passed by the House and the
Senate would impose “an enormous unfunded mandate on states,” forcing
them to pick up $25 billion in new costs over 10 years.

Mr. Barbour explained what this would mean in Mississippi: “Either the
state income tax or the state sales tax or both would have to be raised.
We would add 300,000 people to the Medicaid rolls. It’s about a 50
percent increase.”

Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington, a Democrat, said that despite
such concerns, she was “a huge champion of national health care reform.”

“You can’t take little nibbles at health care reform,” Ms. Gregoire
said. “It’s got to be comprehensive.”

Ms. Gregoire said she had told the top Democrats in Congress that they
might want to delay the expansion of Medicaid if states were still in
economic distress in a few years.

“If we don’t come out of this recession and if I have to absorb new
costs, I don’t know how I would do it,” Ms. Gregoire said. “We would be
hard-pressed to pick up the tab. But that’s not to say we should not
move forward on health care reform. Doing nothing would be the biggest
mistake.”

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