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Mike Leavitt on Health Care


No federal pre-emption of employee health plan regulation.

Leavitt adopted the National Governors Association position paper:

The Issue

In 1999, 42.6 million Americans did not have health insurance. All states have been fervently working to reduce the number of uninsured Americans, to make health insurance more affordable and secure, and to provide quality health care at a reasonable cost to the uninsured. However, the federal government has also expressed an interest in this issue. Any action taken at the federal level could have serious implications for traditional state authority to regulate the health insurance industry and protect consumers.

NGA’s Position

Although the Governors are extremely sensitive to the concerns of large multi-state employers, the fact remains that the complete federal preemption of state laws relating to employee health plans in the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is the greatest single barrier to many state reform and patient protection initiatives.

The Governors support efforts designed to enable small employers to join together to participate more effectively in the health insurance market. In fact, Governors have taken the lead in facilitating the development of such partnerships and alliances. However, these partnerships must be carefully structured and regulated by state agencies in order to protect consumers and small businesses from fraud and abuse and underinsurance. NGA opposes attempts to expand federal authority under ERISA. The Governors have identified the prevention of such federal legislation in the 107th Congress as a top legislative priority.

States have the primary responsibility for health insurance regulation. Across the nation, Governors are working to protect consumers and patients and to properly regulate the complicated health insurance industry.

Source: National Governors Association "Issues / Positions" 01-NGA13 on Oct 5, 2001

More federal funding for rural health services.

Leavitt signed the Western Governors' Association resolution:

  1. Western Governors want rural areas to have an adequate and able workforce to deliver needed health care services. The governors call on the federal government to provide necessary funding for programs such as the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) that have a state-based component, and the Health Professions programs that help health professionals serve in rural and frontier areas.
  2. Western Governors believe that rural health care providers should be paid fairly by Medicare in order to ensure access to health care for rural citizens. The governors encourage the federal government to take further steps to ensure equity in Medicare reimbursement for urban and rural areas.
  3. Alaska, Hawaii, America Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam face extraordinary geographic barriers in providing healthcare services and they should be designated for special consideration and adequate funding to overcome their frontier barriers.
  4. Federal programs like the Rural Health Outreach Grants and the Rural Hospital Flexibility program need to continue to provide funds to states and communities to experiment with new programs, integration of services and coalition building to develop new types of providers, facilities, and services.
  5. Western Governors believe in strengthening the existing health care system. Support for home health agencies, rural health clinics, public health nursing and critical access hospitals are partial solutions.
  6. Western Governors support the elimination of barriers to the use of telemedicine as outlined in the WGA’s 1998 report. In particular, we request that the federal efforts to increase reimbursement for telemedicine consultations, to protect the privacy of patient-identifiable medical information and to support rural health provider telecommunication costs with universal service funds continue.
Source: WGA Policy Resolution 01 - 06: Rural Health Improvements 01-WGA06 on Aug 14, 2001

Protect state tobacco settlement funds from federal seizure.

Leavitt adopted a letter to Congressional leaders from 53 Governors:

As you know, preserving and protecting the state tobacco settlement funds is the nation’s Governors’ highest priority. We strongly urge you to reach final agreement and pass the conference report on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill soon, and to retain the Senate provision that protects our settlement funds from federal seizure.

Many of our state legislatures are currently in session, and some have already completed work on their budgets. Therefore, it is critical that conferees reach agreement quickly on this issue. Governors are unified in their commitment to ensuring that the funds remain in the states and that there be no restrictions on states’ ability to tailor spending to meet the needs of their citizens.

We offer our strongest support for conferees to recede to the Senate version of the bill containing the Hutchison/Graham bipartisan tobacco recoupment protection legislation.

Source: National Governor's Association letter to Congress 99-NGA31 on Apr 14, 1999

Other gubernatorial candidates on Health Care: Mike Leavitt on other issues:
AK-D Fran Ulmer
AK-R Frank Murkowski
AL-D Don Siegelman
AL-R Bob Riley
AR-D Jimmie Lou Fisher
AR-R Mike Huckabee
AZ-D Janet Napolitano
AZ-R Matt Salmon
CA-D Gray Davis
CA-R Bill Simon
CT-D Bill Curry
CT-R John Rowland
FL-D Bill McBride
FL-D Janet Reno
FL-R Jeb Bush
GA-D Roy Barnes
GA-R Sonny Perdue
HI-D Mazie Hirono
HI-R Linda Lingle
IA-D Tom Vilsack
IA-R Doug Gross
ID-D Jerry Brady
ID-R Dirk Kempthorne
IL-D Rod Blagojevich
IL-R George Ryan
KS-D Kathleen Sebelius
KS-R Tim Shallenburger
MA-D Shannon O'Brien
MA-D Robert Reich
MA-R Mitt Romney
MD-D Kathleen Townsend
MD-R Bob Ehrlich
ME-D John Baldacci
ME-R Peter Cianchette
MI-D Jennifer Granholm
MI-R Dick Posthumus
MN-D Roger Moe
MN-I Tim Penny
MN-R Tim Pawlenty
NE-D Stormy Dean
NE-R Mike Johanns
NH-D Mark Fernald
NH-R Craig Benson
NM-D Bill Richardson
NM-R John Sanchez
NV-D Joe Neal
NV-R Kenny Guinn
NY-D Carl McCall
NY-D Andrew Cuomo
NY-R George Pataki
OH-D Tim Hagan
OH-R Bob Taft
OK-D Brad Henry
OK-R Steve Largent
OR-D Ted Kulongoski
OR-R Kevin Mannix
PA-D Mike Fisher
PA-R Ed Rendell
RI-D Myrth York
RI-R Don Carcieri
SC-D Jim Hodges
SC-R Mark Sanford
SD-D Jim Abbott
SD-R Mike Rounds
TN-D Phil Bredesen
TN-R Van Hilleary
TX-D Tony Sanchez
TX-R Rick Perry
VT-D Doug Racine
VT-R Jim Douglas
WI-D Jim Doyle
WI-L Ed Thompson
WI-R Scott McCallum
WY-D Dave Freudenthal
WY-R Eli Bebout
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