Support Mounts for Governor Crist’s Health Care Plan

Governor Crist’s plan to provide affordable health insurance for Florida’s uninsured is moving through the legislative process. Senate Bill 2534, sponsored by Senator Durell Peaden of Crestview, would allow state government to negotiate with health insurers to develop affordable health insurance coverage for uninsured Floridians. Governor Crist continues to work with the Florida House of Representatives to improve understanding of the plan’s advantages and benefits.

Here’s what people are saying:

Gov. Charlie Crist has launched another crusade, this one to help the estimated 20 percent of Floridians who do not have health insurance.

It's a sensible, low-cost program called Cover Florida (Senate Bill 2534), and we support it as a first step in giving 3.8 million uninsured Floridians a shot at insurance.

Speaking Thursday to The News-Press Editorial Board, Crist said the legislation breaks down barriers that have kept the state from being able to negotiate cheap, no-frills coverage and offering it to people at prices they can afford - as low as $100 a month, in some cases. The legislation passed in the Senate Thursday. On the House side, a bill carrying Crist's plan also includes an alternative critics say is inferior and would lead to confusion.

We should urge our legislators to support the Senate bill and Crist's initiative. It's market-based and should cost the taxpayer nothing. The state would invite insurers to provide basic, flexible plans. Rates will increase if people have expensive conditions such as heart disease, but they should still be cheaper than the individual insurance policies available today.

With health insurance, people have a much better chance at regular preventive health care and early diagnosis and treatment of problems. That's better for all of us than letting conditions worsen until an expensive emergency room visit is necessary, contributing to the crowding that makes it harder to treat people with true emergencies.

Florida should become a leader in trying to chip away at the problem of the uninsured.

Gov. Charlie Crist's prescription for the state's ailing health-care system is promising, but if it is to be the remedy to help more Floridians afford medical insurance, he's got to be sure these affordable policies deliver the services they promise.

Mr. Crist certainly deserves praise for his plan that offers common-sense solutions based on free-market forces rather than governmental requirements. It is a serious proposal that could cut the average cost of a health-care policy by more than half to about $150 a month, providing more affordable coverage to the roughly 3.8 million uninsured Floridians.

Whether this is a legitimate cure or a Band-Aid slapped onto the problem, though, will depend on what services are offered and the size of deductibles insurers are permitted to charge. It's also critical that Mr. Crist insists companies cover people with existing health problems and a price cap to prevent companies from lowballing policies the first year and raising them later.

If this works, Mr. Crist's Cover Florida Health Access Act would reverse the dangerous trend that has seen the number of the state's uninsured grow from 17 percent of the population to over 22 percent between 2001 and 2007. Too many of those uninsured -- almost 550,000 -- are children.

Those numbers rank Florida near the bottom of the 50 states for its large number of uninsured. These uninsured get the lowest quality and most expensive medical care because the first time they see a doctor is often in the emergency room. People with insurance wind up paying for this through higher premiums.

Mr. Crist would have the state negotiate coverage with HMOs and other private insurers. Policies could cover the essentials of health care, but would offer fewer services in exchange for lower costs. Insurers would benefit by tapping into a huge market of the uninsured, including young adults between the ages 25 and 34. Nearly one in four people in this age group don't have insurance.

A proposed non-catastrophic plan, for example, would not cover long-term hospitalization or other specific services that a younger, healthy individual may choose to drop. It would cover regular check-ups, routine trips to the doctor and emergency-room treatment.

A catastrophic-care plan could cover hospitalization, tests, immunizations and other conventional services, but limit them over a patient's lifetime to cut costs and lower rates.

Mr. Crist would not require Floridians to buy policies or require employers to offer them. Those kinds of mandates are expensive and present a host of enforcement problems.

His approach is better.

By making health care affordable, it only makes sense that more people will buy coverage.