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Group calls for health care reform Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A coalition including labor unions and community groups in Arkansas said Tuesday it is launching a national campaign to push for quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Health Care for America Now coalition will spend $25 million over the next five months on advertising for its campaign, the Rev. Steve Copley of North Little Rock, a United Methodist minister and chairman of the Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, said at a Capitol news conference. "We're proposing a bold new solution that gives each individual a real choice and a guarantee of quality health insurance coverage that that individual can afford," Copley said. The coalition takes its name from the Health Care for America plan developed by Jacob Hacker, a professor of political science at Yale University. Under Hacker's proposal, the federal government would offer people a choice between public and private health insurance. People who do not have private insurance would pay premiums for coverage in the public plan, with subsidies provided for low-income people. Employers would have to provide insurance at least as good as the public plan or pay 6 percent of payroll to the government to support public insurance for their workers. Copley said the coalition wants to promote a public discussion that will lead to federal legislation. He said he expects "a number of plans" to come out of the discussion. The coalition has not taken a position on the health care plans of the candidates for president, Copley said. On Tuesday, former state Rep. Joyce Elliott, who is running for a state Senate seat, said she would support health care reform at the state level if reform efforts at the federal level are not successful. Elliott said after the news conference that Arkansas may need to take on health care reform at the state level, though she is not planning any legislation to that effect for next year. "I think the best thing this country can do is to have a national policy, but barring that happening, I think there is a responsibility for us to determine what we can do in Arkansas," she said. Elliott defeated incumbent Sen. Irma Hunter Brown, D-Little Rock, in this year's Democratic primary and faces no Republican opponent in the November general election. |
