2009 Governor's State of the State speeches: on Health Care


Jon Huntsman: Truly affordable insurance: pathway to coverage for everyone

Nowhere is major surgery needed more than in accessing affordable healthcare. I'm sorry to have to say it again this year, but skyrocketing healthcare costs are bankrupting businesses and leaving too many Utahns with no options at all. In a state as compassionate as ours, certainly we can find a better way to cover the uninsured.

We are going to find policies that are affordable, the political will to enact them and, through perseverance, provide a pathway to coverage for everyone. Therefore, I am asking all involved: doctors, insurance companies, consumers and we in this chamber to close the gap on the uninsured by 2012. Let's begin this session by passing the task force legislation to develop a truly affordable insurance policy. But this is not enough. We must connect all people to the healthcare they need. A truly affordable policy and the means by which to connect all people will be done in this state, this year!

Source: Utah 2009 State of the State address Jan 27, 2009

Sarah Palin: Greater competition, more choices, and less litigation

In this chamber, we share a commitment to serious health-care reform. We've learned from experience that all the answers do not come from Washington. When Congress turns to health-care reform this year, we look to our delegation to make the case for greater competition, more private sector choices, and less litigation in the health-care market. But we're not going to wait. Here, reform can move forward without delay.
Source: Alaska 2009 State of the State Address Jan 22, 2009

Sarah Palin: Health Care Commission recommends habits against obesity

We have alarming levels of heart disease, diabetes, childhood obesity--and all of these maladies are on the rise. Now, I won't stand here and lecture--for very long--but health care reform on an individual basis is often just this simple: we could save a lot of money, and a lot of grief, by making smarter choices.

It starts by ending destructive habits, and beginning healthy habits in eating and exercise. In my case, it's hard to slack when you have the ever-present example of an Iron Dogger nearby. But many of us could use a little more time in our great outdoors--and when you live in the Great Land, there's no excuse.

Protecting good health is largely a matter of personal responsibility, but government policy can help. Our new Alaska Health Care Commission will recommend changes that affect the well-being of Alaskans far into the future.

Source: Alaska 2009 State of the State Address Jan 22, 2009

Tim Kaine: Invest in community-based mental health care

My budget proposal preserves care for the mentally ill. In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we made significant investments last session in community-based mental health care. This budget protects the investments we made together. And, the budget continues our transformation from a state that over-relies on institutional care of the mentally disabled to the more effective and humane strategy of expanding services that people can receive in their own communities.
Source: Virginia 2009 State of the State address Jan 14, 2009

Tim Kaine: Expand pre-natal care to reduce infant mortality rate

My proposed budget protects the advances we made in this biennial budget in funding our health care safety net. There are no cuts to free clinics and community health centers in my budget. And, we continue our expansion of pre-natal care to low-income mothers so that we can fight an unacceptable infant mortality rate.
Source: Virginia 2009 State of the State address Jan 14, 2009

Janet Napolitano: Expanded access to KidsCare and AHCCCS

In these difficult times, we are called to serve the Arizona families hit hardest by the economic storm. In the past year, more than 70,000 Arizonans have enrolled in state health care through AHCCCS and KidsCare. It would be wrong to hurt those who are ill or disabled in the name of balancing the budget.

One imperative is to protect our advances in health care, including expanded access to KidsCare for families that need it, investments in health care technology to improve the delivery of care and substantial savings on prescription drugs. Some fear that little can be done right now about these pressing problems; but Congress is likely to increase aid for state Medicaid programs. And when this happens, Arizona can continue its work to improve health care by enacting quality-of-care measures, building our electronic health records infrastructure and implementing other reforms necessary to ensure that every Arizona family has access to a doctor when they need one.

Source: Arizona 2009 State of the State Address Jan 12, 2009

Bobby Jindal: Move away from ER to primary care; cover 100,000 uninsured

The Louisiana Health First initiative outlines improvements in our health care system that factor in the serious fiscal circumstances we face today and make it clear that we cannot make these improvements wait another year. The initiative includes: Covering 100,000 additional Louisianians who are uninsured today; We must move away from an all-or-nothing one-size-fits-all system; We must move away from the ER to primary care.

Under the initiative, the state will for the first time be able to hold our healthcare system accountable for outcomes in Medicaid. Right now, all we can do is pay over 50 million claims a year to over 30,000 providers. We get a bill and we pay it, with no assurance that the service was necessary, improved the patient's health, or was even safe.

Source: 2009 State of the State Address Jan 8, 2009

David Paterson: Cover an additional 400,000 New Yorkers

An estimated 225,000 New Yorkers could lose their jobs in this recession, so many of them may also lose their health insurance. That is why expanding access to health care is more important than ever.

Last year, we expanded our program to cover every child in New York. This year we will partner with Washington to cover an additional 400,000 New Yorkers. We will pay for this by asking Washington to let us use the Medicaid savings we have already achieved.

However, one in three New Yorkers from the ages of 19 to 29 are still uninsured. This is unacceptable. That is why I will propose a bill allowing families to cover family members up to the age of 29 in their family coverage plans at their own cost.

We must systematically remove the barriers until we can enroll every New Yorker who is eligible for publicly-funded coverage.

Source: 2009 State of the State address to NY legislature Jan 7, 2009

David Paterson: Address epidemic of childhood obesity

We should aggressively address the greatest threat to our children's health today, the epidemic of obesity. One out of every four New Yorkers under 18 years of age is obese.

Childhood obesity causes serious health problems including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Obesity not only blights our children's futures--it creates a significant economic burden on our health care spending. New York spends $6.1 billion each year to treat obesity-related health problems-- the second-highest level of spending in the nation.

Our five-point plan includes the Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative, which offers a new revolving loan fund that will increase the number of healthy food markets in underserved communities. We must also ban trans fats in restaurants, require calorie posting in chain restaurants, ban junk food sales in schools, and place a surcharge on sugared beverages like soda.

Source: 2009 State of the State address to NY legislature Jan 7, 2009

Deval Patrick: 98% of all Massachusetts citizens now have health insurance

Thanks to successful implementation of health care reform, nearly 98 percent of all Massachusetts citizens now have health insurance that they can depend on, the highest proportion in the Nation.
Source: 2009 State of the State speech to Massachusetts Legislature Jan 1, 2009

  • The above quotations are from 2009 Governor's State of the State speeches.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Sarah Palin on Health Care.
  • Click here for more quotes by Deval Patrick on Health Care.
Candidates and political leaders on Health Care:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 02, 2018