The Voinovich-Bingaman Bill: Letting the States Take the Lead in Extending Health Insurance

by Stuart M. Butler, Ph. D.
WebMemo #1128
Last month’s “Health Week” in the U.S. Senate, just like the national “Cover the Uninsured Week” also held in May, failed to result in any Senate legislation to deal with the problems of uninsured Americans. And in all probability, if any legislation is passed by the House next week during its “Health Week,” that legislation will be pushed through on a party-line vote and will fail to be enacted by the Senate. With the political gridlock on health care, neither side has the votes in Washington to enact significant reform.

But a bipartisan group of Members is taking a radically different approach to achieving reform that could break out of the gridlock in a refreshing way. Rather than trying to impose a national solution, this approach would instead give strong encouragement to the states to take the lead, allowing them to try proposals currently bottled up in Congress and rewarding states that achieve the goal of improved health care coverage. Successful welfare reform started in the states, and state welfare reform initiatives were given an enormous boost in the landmark 1996 federal legislation. This approach applies the same strategy to health care...for more of the story from The Heritage Foundation