The following summarizes recent newspaper coverage of health care proposals in Kansas and Rhode Island.
Kansas: The Kansas Health Policy Authority on Tuesday finalized recommendations intended to address the rising cost of health care, the Kansas City Star reports. According to the Star, the recommendations included "more modest ideas designed to tweak the existing system rather than reinvent it," as the panel had discussed earlier. The recommendations include a statewide smoking ban; a 50-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase; implementing a series of technical insurance changes to encourage better insurance rates for small businesses; extending an existing premium subsidy to more childless adults; creating more incentives for cancer screenings; creating standardized insurance cards; extending dental coverage to pregnant women; and promoting physical education and nutrition in schools. Another recommendation would establish an insurance mandate for children if other efforts to enroll eligible children in existing health care programs are unsuccessful. The recommendations will be presented to lawmakers next month (Klepper, Kansas City Star, 10/17).

Rhode Island: Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts (D) on Tuesday speaking at the University of Rhode Island Feinstein Providence Campus, called for changes to the state's health care system, including a requirement that all residents obtain health coverage, the Providence Journal reports. Under Roberts' plan, every resident would have some form of insurance based on a sliding income scale, and small businesses would have the same insurance rates savings as large employers. She said the state also would "work with insurance companies to make sure doctors get paid to keep their patients healthy." According to the Journal, Roberts' plan would call on the health care industry to develop an insurance system that guarantees access to primary care for all residents and reduces uninsured residents' use of costly alternatives, such as emergency departments. Roberts said that her plan is not an official proposal for legislation and only is meant to start a debate on health reform, adding that she likely will file health care legislation in the next session (Mooney, Providence Journal, 10/17). Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.