States Consider Ways To Expand Health Insurance to More Residents

States are working to expand health insurance coverage to more residents and to make health care more accessible and affordable, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

According to the Inquirer, legislatures in more than two dozen states have begun to consider proposals to expand health insurance to more uninsured residents, and four recently have enacted such proposals.

Jennifer Tolbert, a policy analyst for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said, "There is clearly broad interest across the country and in many states in developing broad strategies to address the problem of the uninsured" that "seek to build on existing public programs such as [the State Children's Health Insurance Program]."

Richard Cauchi, health program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said, "This activity is genuinely local, not national," adding, "Each state is calculating its own needs and resources and checking finance realities." He said, "With 2008 sessions just 12 weeks away, it should be an interesting year" (Goldstein, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/11).