Teton Transplant

I frequently hear that the Republican party is the party of “no” when it comes to solving the health care problem. Well, let’s review the situation in Washington.

The House Republicans have a 10-step plan that has been on their website for many months. They have introduced a bill for each of the 10 steps. Unfortunately, with one exception, none of the bills have ever made it out of committee. Apparently the legislator most responsible for leaving these bills languishing in committee is Representative Eileen Cody, Chair of the House Health Care and Wellness Committee.

The House Democrat’s plan? It’s “under construction” according to their website as of February 6th. (See screen shot below.)

Here is the irony, the only bill in the House Republicans’ Plan that has made it out of committee was HB 1383. Signed by Governor Gregoire into law in 2006, it allows the state to offer health savings accounts to state employees. According to Representative Doug Ericksen, a primary author of the House Republicans’ 10-step plan, the administration has refused to implement it, laying the blame to an incompatible computer system among other things. So four years and still no health savings account option for state employees.

I asked Ericksen what, if anything, is likely to get done this legislative session on health care. Not a lot it appears. He said a bill that will put more pressure on the administration to implement health savings accounts for state employees has made it out of committee.

The only other health care-related bill that has made it out of committee is HB 3015, which would authorize the Insurance Commissioner to enter into compacts with other states to permit the sale of small group health benefit plans across state lines. Ericksen says this is fine as far as it goes, but is too lenient in his view, since it is only optional. He would prefer to see a more forceful bill.

Here is the screen shot from the House Democrats’ website as of February 6th, 2010: