Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Washington legislature is in a short, sixty-day session. But that’s not stopping lawmakers – and the state’s insurance commissioner – from proposing sweeping healthcare reform.

Nothing major is expected to pass this year, but sponsors are laying the groundwork for next year. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

What to do about healthcare and health insurance? Since the federal government isn’t coming to the rescue, states are becoming the laboratories of change. Albeit reluctantly.

Mike Kreidler: “State governments out there are going broke in effect because of the rising cost of healthcare.”

Mike Kreidler is Washington’s elected Insurance Commissioner. A Democrat up for re-election, he’s put forward a plan to provide catastrophic coverage to all Washingtonians – including the 600,000 uninsured.

Mike Kreidler: “You’re doing this because it dramatically changes the cost of routine health insurance. Approximately 40-percent of the average health insurance premium goes for catastrophic today.”

An even more sweeping healthcare reform bill comes from State Senator Karen Keiser, a Democrat and Chair of the Senate Healthcare Committee. Her proposal – modeled on legislation in Wisconsin - would provide across-the-board coverage to anyone who doesn’t qualify for a federal program like Medicare. Both Kreidler and Keiser would pay for their programs through a payroll tax. And both emphasize you’d still get insurance through private companies.

Mike Keiser: “It is not a single-payer program, it isn’t government-run healthcare. The providers, the doctors all would be the same that we have right now.”

Democrats hold the majority in the legislature, but Republicans have ideas too. State Senator Cheryl Pflug is pushing a more free market approach to reform. She would create a New York Stock Exchange for healthcare. She bills it as an open market where individuals and companies could go to buy the level of coverage they desire.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire agrees reforms are needed. But advocates a go-slow approach – perhaps in part because she’s up for re-election this year.

Chris Gregoire: ““We need to try some new ideas but we need to do it smartly and thoughtfully and not hurt the market and not hurt the patients.”

That’s why the legislature this year may form a citizens work group on healthcare to study the options and make recommendations. A similar process is already underway in Oregon.