news-record.com

A North Carolina nonprofit's proposed statewide health-insurance
plan would require contributions from government, business, insurers
and individuals to try to achieve affordable coverage for everyone in
the state.

The proposal, released Monday by the N.C. Justice Center's Health Access Coalition, outlines six goals:

--
Cover every child and make prevention a priority by 1) fully funding
existing N.C. Health Choice and Medicaid programs for children from
poor families; 2) changing the N.C. Kids Care sliding-scale program to
make insurance more affordable for families that don't quality for
Medicare or Health Choice; 3) requiring families that can afford health
coverage for their kids but don't buy it to pay a penalty on their
state income tax returns.

-- Expand public coverage for
lower-income parents and pregnant women by 1) expanding Medicaid to
cover all pregnant women and parents of children already eligible for
Medicaid and Health Choice coverage -- pregnant women and parents whose
income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level; 2)
simplifying application and yearly renewal for parents.

-- Make
health insurance less expensive for small businesses and their
employers by 1) banning insurers from charging extra to small
businesses because owners, workers or family members have pre-existing
health conditions; 2) consolidating small-business and individual
health-insurance markets to spread risks, lower costs and make it
easier for individuals to buy coverage; 3) enacting, guaranteeing and
subsidizing a deep-discount health plan, sold on the private insurance
market, to provide affordable coverage.

-- Guarantee affordable
choice for all North Carolinians by 1) banning insurers from charging
more or denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions;
2) requiring everyone to pay a regular monthly premium based on income
and promoting regular doctor's visits and healthy lifestyles; 3)
subsidizine premiums for people in the state's high-risk
health-insurance pool, eliminate the waiting period to enroll and
letting members buy pool coverage for their dependents as well; 4)
creating a clearinghouse for private health plans, with employers,
employees, hospitals, insurers and the state contributing to the costs;
5) requiring sliding-scale premiums for these health plans; 6) after
subsidized, affordable plans are in place, requiring residents to
purchase insurance or pay a "significant" penalty on their tax returns.

The
plan also seeks to reduce health-care costs by emphasizing preventive
medicine, encouraging healthier lifestyles, and establishing a state
institute to assess quality, cost and effectiveness of treatments.

In
addition to seeking money from all participants for the state
clearinghouse, the plan would raise money by: 1) seeking increased
federal funding in 2009 for child health insurance, as was vetoed
earlier by President Bush; 2) raising the state's cigarette tax to at
least the national median -- an increase of 65 cents per pack at
current rates; 3) obtaining "substantial federal assistance" for the
cost of programs that expand coverage to adults through the state's
Medicaid program.