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Embargoed
for Release:
February 3, 2005
10:30 a.m. |
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States
Find Alternate Routes to Health Coverage
WASHINGTON-Despite
continued state financial pressure, rising insurance premiums,
and increasing numbers of uninsured, state officials worked
hard in 2004 to keep health care coverage on their agendas,
according to a new report, State of the States: Finding Alternate
Routes, released today. This annual report, produced by The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives
program (SCI), tells the story of state health coverage activities
from the previous year. As the only report to provide a comprehensive
analysis of state activities in health care coverage, State
of the States is an important resource for states to learn
from one another how to improve and expand health coverage
in these challenging times. View the report at: http://statecoverage.net/pdf/stateofstates2005.pdf
2004
marked the first year in several years that financial conditions
in many states showed signs of improvement. However, the fiscal
crisis that began in 2001 remains palpable. "State officials
continued to foster debate on strategies to expand health
insurance" says Alice Burton, SCI program director. "States
are finding alternate routes to expand coverage and make existing
programs work most effectively in this changing environment,"
says Burton.
Most
states endured another bad budget year without making deep
cuts to their Medicaid programs. This reflects Medicaid's
essential role as a source of health coverage for vulnerable
populations. However, a combination of surging costs, enrollment,
and uninsured has created a "perfect storm" that
has driven many Medicaid leaders to rethink the way their
programs are structured and how they operate. Going forward,
how Medicaid evolves will impact states' ability to maintain
or expand coverage.
States
pursued innovative strategies to maintain or expand coverage.
In some cases, states found new revenue sources to increase
health care coverage. Residents in several states approved
ballot initiatives to increase tobacco taxes to support health
initiatives. Other states continued to reach out to the private-sector
to build partnerships, with many seeking new opportunities
for collaboration. Many of these strategies seek to bolster
employer-sponsored insurance by helping small employers offer
coverage or enabling low-income workers to purchase insurance.
States
also tailored their coverage approaches to address the underlying
reasons for private-sector cost increases and the erosion
of private health insurance coverage. Strategies focused on
making insurance affordable, whether through legislation to
allow insurers to sell scaled-back benefit plans, or by revisiting
the concept of state-sponsored reinsurance.
For
more information on the SCI program visit www.statecoverage.net
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