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Forum considers health care options

BY RIDGELY OCHS | ridgely.ochs@newsday.com

9:38 PM EST, December 5, 2007

Even as a special state committee sorts through ideas for providing health coverage for all New Yorkers, an overarching question looms: Should everyone be required to join such a plan?

That question was posed yesterday by State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, a member of the state panel that took testimony from Long Island officials, activists and doctors during a hearing at SUNY Old Westbury.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed the panel to come up with proposals by late spring. Wednesday's forum was the last of eight held statewide. Now the members must decide which options will be looked at more deeply by the Urban Institute, the consultant that will provide an in-depth analysis of the various proposals.

"I think we've gotten past convincing the panel there's a problem," Dinallo said. Now, he said, the question is: "How do we execute a solution?"

Speakers Wednesday ranged from those who were against any kind of government-sponsored health insurance to those who advocated a mandated, state-run health care system that every New Yorker must belong to.

Others offered something in between. Elisabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society, based in Manhattan, presented a plan that would expand the state's Child Health Plus insurance.

Under her proposal, the plan would not be mandated -- as in Massachusetts. There, every citizen must either get health insurance from an employer, or buy his own -- with low income people getting a state subsidy.

Instead, New York would negotiate with health insurers; those who signed up would pay a sliding scale premium based on income, she said. She said it would cost about $4.5 billion annually.

Benjamin said that polls her group conducted showed New Yorkers were wary of mandated insurance. But Dinallo said it is "generally believed" that having everyone in a health care system drives the cost down.

"We're going to struggle around the issue of a mandate," Dinallo said. "That's a core question."

In the meantime, Assemb. Richard Gottfried, head of the Assembly's health committee, outlined his $59 billion plan for health insurance. His plan -- which would not be mandated -- would build on the Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus programs.

Instead of individuals and employers paying premiums, the state would set and pay the premium under New York Health Plus. Deductibles would be eliminated and co-payments would be nominal.