Groups unite with plan to help reduce number of uninsured

WASHINGTON — Groups representing doctors, retirees, business executives and others united behind a plan Thursday to reduce the number of uninsured Americans through tax breaks and an expansion of existing government programs.

The groups have been working behind the scenes for nearly two years. They met 15 times along the way and relied on experts in conflict resolution to reach an agreement.

The new Congress has spawned a flurry of legislation and news conferences to tout an array of ideas for reducing the ranks of the uninsured, which is now projected at 46.6 million. However, the proposal Thursday stands out because the groups involved are so influential, and because they are so different. Their ranks include the AARP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association (AMA).

"We achieved what many thought would be impossible," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal-leaning advocacy group.

Their first priority is to focus on children. The public strongly supports covering children, and they're less expensive to cover because they typically have fewer health problems, according to the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured.

The coalition envisions a "one-stop shopping" center that would let uninsured children be automatically enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program when they enroll in other means-tested programs such as discount school lunches and food stamps. Congress will be asked to fund the expansion.

The children's health-insurance program covers about 5 million people who live in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough to afford health coverage on their own.

The initiative, which the groups named Kids First, also calls for a new tax credit designed to make it easier for families with incomes below 300 percent of the poverty line to pay for insurance for both children and adults.

The coalition said that the threshold would apply to a family of four that earns less than $60,000.

In reaching an agreement, the coalition avoided perhaps the toughest question of all: how to pay for the recommendations. The proposals for children alone would cost an estimated $45 billion over five years.

While the group had no cost estimates for plans to expand coverage for adults, members agreed that to do nothing would cost more in the form of higher insurance premiums and taxpayer coverage of uncompensated care.

"These recommendations provide a realistic blueprint for immediate action by a bipartisan and caring Congress. We need more action and less debate," said Reed Tuckson, senior vice president at the United Health Foundation.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Pelosi backs the proposals' general thrust and "very much supports" the plans to expand the children's health-insurance program, which is up for reauthorization.

But the recommendations, nevertheless, face a rocky road in Congress as lawmakers grapple with unsustainable Social Security and Medicare costs, a budget deficit, a costly war in Iraq and pay-as-you-go rules that require new budget expenditures to be offset by spending reductions or tax increases.

"Fiscal responsibility will always be a priority," Hammill added. "We'll put everything on the table and make the tough decisions."

Since killing former President Clinton's controversial proposal for universal health coverage in 1994, Congress has not fixed the problem of growing numbers of uninsured Americans and runaway health care costs.

The proposal's creators acknowledged it fell short of universal health coverage. Alissa Fox, a vice president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, said "over half" of uninsured Americans would get coverage under the proposal.

Among others backing the proposal were: the American Academy of Family Physicians, America's Health Insurance Plans, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente and Pfizer.

Compiled from The Associated Press, McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters