State Health Reform Adds Pressure for U.S. Action

In the absence of federal action on health care, "[s]tates are providing the leadership that is moving health care reform across state lines and building momentum for national reform," Washington state Sen. Karen Keiser (D), and Adam Thompson, senior health policy analyst at the Progressive States Network, write in a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece.

Keiser and Thompson cite San Francisco's universal health care access program and ongoing negotiations over a health care overhaul package in California as examples of local efforts on health care reform that could help advance the cause nationwide.

According to Keiser and Thompson, "we need states to be leaders on health care reform if we are ever to have a federal solution," in part because states are pressuring federal legislators to act on the issue (Keiser/Thompson, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/10).