Message: he cares -- UPDATE
Today, Mike Beebe believes in health care for Arkansas. Us, too, though there are a few details lacking from this plan, which otherwise is intended to feel very good. (But, hey, one idea is to "expand school health clinics." That may sound like common sense eye wash, but those are code words to the Religious Right for all sorts of nasty stuff like birth control. So give Beebe a solid hand on that idea.)
Details on the jump.
UPDATE: GOP says there no substance to this. (Isn't that what we said?) You can get them on the jump, too.
BEEBE CAMPAIGN NEWS RELEASE
SPRINGDALE/FT. SMITH/CLARKSVILLE) - Mike Beebe announced a 12-point plan for affordable, accessible and quality health care as part of a Believe in Arkansas Health Care Tour today at events in Springdale, Ft. Smith and Clarksville.
"Too many Arkansans can't afford health insurance. Too many Arkansans don't have access to the care they need, and too many seniors don't have the quality choices they deserve," Beebe said. "I have a 12-point plan to improve the affordability, accessibility and quality of our health care. Government can't do everything, but it can help with the cost of health care.
Beebe told the story of a Hot Springs man and a Marion school nurse who were with him the day he filed his candidacy for governor, talking about their concerns for health care coverage and the nursing shortage in Arkansas. In the afternoon, Beebe held a health care forum at Economy Feed and Tack in Fort Smith, where he talked about owner Lee Webb's want to provide health care coverage for his employees but lacked the resources to do so.
At the day's events, Beebe detailed his 12-point plan.
Beebe's plan for expanding health care options for small businesses includes expanding the Arkansas Safety Net Program and potentially using the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
To address the cost of health care, Beebe proposed using reinsurance for insurers to stabilize premium costs for targeted groups and expanding coverage by Medicaid programs like ARKids First and the AR Senior program. Beebe said he plans to evaluate the current match rates to ensure that these programs are maximizing the use of federal dollars. Beebe said he will promote health literacy campaigns through existing infrastructures like the UAMS Center on Aging to increase health care literacy and save consumer dollars.
To improve health care accessibility, Beebe said he would expand school health clinics, create incentives for primary care professionals service in rural and urban centers, attack the nursing shortage in Arkansas and promote telemedicine programs through existing structures like the UAMS ANGELS program.
To attack the nursing shortage, Beebe said he would establish a permanent Nursing Workforce Center in Arkansas.
To improve the quality of care in Arkansas, Beebe said he would promote the use of standardized electronic medical records, implement the office of Inspector General to examine how state dollars are spent through Medicaid programs and utilize home and community-based care for seniors as an option to nursing home care.
Beebe spoke at health care forums at the Schmeiding Center in Springdale, Economy Feed and Tack in Fort Smith, and a health care meeting in Clarksville. He will host another health care forum at UAMS in Little Rock, Thursday. He said his health care policy would be published on his Web site, http://www.mikebeebe.com/, at the close of the week.
THE BEEBE PLAN: HEALTH CARE - Affordability, Accessibility, Quality
- Expand affordable health insurance options for small businesses
- Use reinsurance program to stabilize costs
- Make insurance more affordable using federal tax credits
- Promote the expansion of coverage for the uninsured by building on Medicaid
- Institute a health literacy campaign utilizing preventative care
- Expand school health clinics
- Create incentives for primary care professionals to provide service in rural areas
- Fix the nursing shortage in Arkansas
- Promote telemedicine to improve access and affordability
- Promote use of electronic medical records to ensure patient control and safe medical accuracy
- Improve program integrity to ensure money is spent wisely
- Utilize home and community-based care for seniors as an option to nursing homes
GOP NEWS RELEASE
Little Rock (June 28, 2006) – Clint Reed, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Arkansas, issued the following statement regarding Mike Beebe’s election year healthcare plan:
“Mike Beebe’s health insurance policy proposal is just another in a long line of substance-free policy proposals. Mike Beebe has had more ‘plans for a plan’ than any candidate in modern Arkansas history. This proposal has no substance -- then again, it’s not a surprise.
Mike Beebe should explain why he has flip-flopped on small business insurance options. Why did Mike Beebe just last month sign an Attorney General’s letter in opposition to federal legislation that would allow small business owners to band together to purchase group health insurance? The letter went to every United States Senator, asking them to oppose this legislation. If Mike Beebe wanted to truly help small business, he would have supported this legislation. Now, he says he wants to be supportive. Mike Beebe’s election year rhetoric does not add up.
In short, Mike Beebe’s substance-free plan does nothing more than spread the costs of healthcare instead of attempting to correct the problem of rising medical costs. Mr. Beebe’s proposal is a weak attempt to spread costs to keep premiums down. In the end, taxpayers and the insured will have to pay for it.”
Comments
Amen on point #6 - expanding school health clinics. I hope, though, that this means maybe we can have full time nurses in ALL schools 5 days a week. In my school with over 700 students, we have a nurse 3 days a week. We joke, tongue-in-cheek, that kids can only get sick or hurt on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
There is a painful shortage of nurses, and I hope Beebe has some ideas on solutions for this. I'm not sure what a "nursing workforce center" would entail, but it's a start.
Oh, and I saw Beebe yesterday at Mike's Place in Conway. Looked like maybe a fundraiser luncheon. He was pressing the flesh when I saw him.
Posted by: Liberal and Proud | June 28, 2006 02:00 PM
Liberal & proud...Then I guess you want all this to be all paid for by only those in the upper brackets. Why are you at home on a Wednesday not working and paying no taxes.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2006 02:22 PM
Anonymous,
Why don't you go back to the Ark Family Coalition with the rest of your right wing wackos? Your dribble is boring.
Posted by: BR549 | June 28, 2006 03:41 PM
Silly Republicans.
Posted by: jd | June 28, 2006 04:06 PM
BR549...hey fatso...just who do you think should pay for this? Is any of your tax money going to it? Hell no! You are the dribbler on this rag blog......Trish
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2006 04:07 PM
Mr./Ms. Anonymous of 2:22,
1. I do believe taxes support many, many good projects. That's how we get highways, libraries, police, fire fighters, public schools, hospitals, etc., etc., etc. Do you use any of those services? Just curious.
2. Do you have children? Hundred bucks says you don't, or you wouldn't respond so ignorantly to the need to have full-time nurses in our public schools.
3. And, since we're prying into each other's personal lives, why aren't you working and paying taxes or whatever the hell you're talking about? I happen to have a WONDERFUL job that allows me to be on the same schedule as my children, therefore, I am not on contract for about nine weeks out of the year. I can type on the blog, hang out at Wild River country, paint bedrooms (that's this week's agenda), mow the lawn, plant flowers, visit my mother, ride bikes with the kids, download music, or whatever I feel like most of that time. (Oh, and I work a second job that's internet-related to help make ends meet. I can do that any time, even between posts to folks like you.) And, why do you think I don't pay taxes? Are you confused? Do you think that people who post in the middle of the day just don't work and don't pay taxes. Silly, silly man/woman.
So, maybe you should type something that matters; raise the level of the dialogue and make some valid points why you're against this health care plan instead of saying things that so clearly show your lack of understanding.
Have a great day.
Posted by: Liberal and Proud | June 28, 2006 04:43 PM
Who should pay for gov programs?
For starters let's tax the folks who make the most money on gov programs-contracts. But wait, we can't they have offshore bidnesses so that dumbasses like Anonymouse can spew out stuff s/he doesn't understand and pay their share of the taxes. You da one Anon. Pay up and thank Bushco.
Great ideas from Beebe. But WalMart will save the day. It will have in store, walk-in health clinics at everyday low prices. Watch the liability waiver you must sign.
_
Posted by: LWood | June 28, 2006 05:27 PM
Sounds like something a healthy tobacco tax could enhance!
Posted by: P | June 28, 2006 05:30 PM
Why not a big tax on BEER and other liquid drugs.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2006 07:17 PM
If Clint Reed and the Republicans think Beebe's health care plan this is only about increasing health care costs and increasing taxes, they need to take a course in basic economics.
Item #6 -- Expand School Health Clinics -- would save multiple milllions of dollars to Arkansans in the long run. Health differences among student populations have important implications for learning. Lower-income children have poorer vision than middle-class children, partly because of prenatal conditions, partly because of how their eyes are trained as infants, partly because they are not tested and corrected. They have poorer teeth; more asthma, poorer nutrition, more exposure to smoke, and a host of other problems that affect attendance, attention, and learning. By placing health care clinics in our schools, we can resolve probably 50% of learning deficits that are physical in nature. Hooray for Mike Beebe, for putting the issue out there.
Posted by: Marvel | June 28, 2006 08:49 PM
I have to ask, given litigation, how much actual nursing do school nurses get the opportunity for which to nurse?
Posted by: P | June 28, 2006 09:06 PM
We spend more of our GNP on health care than most nations, and we get less for it.
Changing our inefficient, ineffective, bloated, insurance company-driven medical care system isn't going to cost money, it's going to save money.
The idea that we have the best health care in the world is propaganda. Pure, unadultereated BS.
But, as with global warming, the WMDs in Iraq, and social security, if Bush said pigs can fly, you 30%ers would be swearing you had seen them yourselves.
Posted by: Roland | June 28, 2006 09:34 PM
The idea that we have the best health care in the world is propaganda. Pure, unadultereated BS.
Posted by: Roland
Roland is right. We're right up near the top though*, but only because we pay much more money than everybody else. If other countries spent as much on health care as we do, they'd be way ahead of us.
*We have to be doing a pretty good job. The most obese country in the world couldn't have a life expectancy almost as high as Italy unless we were giving the doctors/hospitals/insurance companies/pharmaceutical companies a fortune.
I would be cheaper for us to just move to Italy.
Posted by: Spirit | June 28, 2006 10:58 PM
Ok Spirit..then do us all a big favor and move your socialist a-- to Italy.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2006 11:03 PM
I get the feeling these inane anonymous posts are the products of 12- or 13-year-old kids who get paid a buck a pop by their parents. The grownups are out on the deck with only their most trusted friends from Sunday school. They're all having a few secret beers, but the guys are also choking on non-Cuban cigars and exchaning idiotic jokes. The women are really smarter than the men.
But thank goodness someone is paying our taxes.
Posted by: hugh mann | June 29, 2006 01:27 AM
Trish,
I love it when you talk dirty to me.
Posted by: br549 | June 29, 2006 08:08 AM
Check out this page with lots of graphs about trends in health care from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/print-sec1.cfm
If you go about halfway down to the graph titled "Exhibit 1.11: Concentration of Health Spending in the Total U.S. and Family Populations, 2002" you will see that the bottom 50% in income only has 3.4% spent on their health care. That includes ALL sources of spending.
So, when anyone tries to tell you that there is so much health care money is spent on the poor, and that it should be cut because they aer costing the rest of us too much, just point out that graph.
The top 1% spends 22.3% in health care!!!
Of course, that probably includes plastic surgery, but still you would think that the bottom HALF would at least get 20% or so, wouldn't you?
Pretty pathetic. That is what privatized health care gets you. Half the population getting the shaft.
Posted by: rablib | June 30, 2006 01:05 AM