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Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - While the giant managed care regulation issue has stood center stage among health care issues during the 1997 legislative session, several other health-related bills have played leading roles.
"I think it's been a very successful session as far as health care is concerned," said Rep. Sue Shear, D-St. Louis County, a 25-year veteran of the House who sponsored several health care bills.
House Public Health and Safety Committee Chairman Mary Bland echoed Shear's sentiments.
"I don't think we've accomplished much as a General Assembly this session," said Bland, D-St. Louis. "But I think we've done well in health care."
In fact, Gov. Mel Carnahan singled out managed care regulation as one of the main highlights of the 1997 legislative -- although he had pointedly had not included it in his legislative recommendations. At the beginning of the legislative session in January, Carnahan actually had questioned the wisdom of the HMO proposal lawmakers had drafted and said he thought that in some areas the proposal went too far.
Shear sponsored the House versions of the other two bills that made it to the governor's desk.
One would require that insurance companies cover in-home treatment for diabetic patients at no additional premiums, and the other would require them to pay for breast reconstruction surgery following a mastectomy.
"Two years ago, I wouldn't have even been able to get those bills out of committee," Shear said of the progress she sees in the health care arena.
Shear has sponsored bills on the same issues before, but they failed before having a chance to be heard on the House floor.
"When the public pressure gets high enough, it is even stronger than the rich insurance interest," she said of the primary opponent to such legislation.
Shear noted that both diabetes and breast cancer are widespread illnesses.
This diabetes bill would help diabetics control their illness before it advances, thereby improving their health and saving money in the future, Shear said.
"There is no way that a person with diabetes, unless they have lots of money, can manage their illness," she said.
It was another health care bill that dominated the last hour of the 1997 session in the Senate.
It was the governor's plan to establish a non-profit organization to provide health insurance for children of the working poor. That bill was killed a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
Some Republicans warned the proposal would be the first step at creating an expensive program to finance health care for all children.
A few Republicans in the Senate charged it was part of a conspiracy to create a national health care system through public schools.
That was the objection raised by Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, who led Friday's filibuster at the end of the session.
But even Bland confessed reservations.
"I kind of have mixed emotions about that because we're setting up another non-profit organization," Bland said.
She said she supports the goal of providing health care for more underprivileged children, but she's apprehensive about adding to the state's bureaucracy.
Bland sponsored a bill to establish a single-payer health care system in the state financed through a tax on business. It's the same bill she's sponsored for more than a decade. This year, the bill was passed by a House committee, but did not reach the floor for debate.
"We knew it wasn't going to pass," Bland said. When asked if she's planning to sponsor it again in 1998, she said "absolutely, every year."
The fact that the bill made it out of committee before it died is progress for Bland.
"There's a growing constituency here for that legislation," she said. "It's just a matter of time before people will recognize that you take out a lot of unnecessary expense (with single-payer health care.)"
The legislature also considered the issue of a federal mandate known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act, which requires states to guarantee "portability" for most workers who change or lose their jobs.
Under the federal law, a former employee has the option of continuing to purchase the health coverage that had been provided by the employer. The act also prohibits insurance providers from dropping patients if they become ill.
Missouri had the option of changing some of the federal provisions, but state lawmakers did nothing on the issue.
"It was just too much on the plate this time," said Bland, who said she thinks Missouri needs to draft a plan that would specifically address Missouri's needs.