Health Care: Prescribed preparations

For a state that has steadfastly resisted the easy-money lure of legalized gambling, Georgia is nevertheless fond of placing long-shot bets in courtrooms, not casinos.

The state’s latest roll of the dice came in May, when Gov. Sonny Perdue announced that Georgia had become the 20th state to latch onto a lawsuit challenging the constitutionally of the federal health care reform act passed last March. In a statement, Perdue said that, “Congress’ health care bill will exact a huge cost on our state and curtail our economic growth.” The release also contests the notion that Americans be required to purchase insurance, which is a key part of the reform formula.

Perdue’s action followed Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine’s decision that Georgia wouldn’t implement a temporary high-risk insurance pool that’s part of the new program.

These actions came after Attorney General Thurbert Baker advised that bringing suit in this cause would likely fail.

Rather than marshaling a team of litigators to attack the law of the land, we believe Georgia would be best served by bringing together the best minds in health care and economics to plan how our state can best fit into the national scheme of health reform. The end product should be a system that will maintain, and even improve, the health of Georgians at the lowest cost.

There’s no doubt that Georgia and the U.S. spend a lot on health care. About one in five dollars in Georgia’s $17.9 billion state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 are spent on health programs. And the status quo nationally does a sorry job of spending money contributed by taxpayers and insurance premium-payers alike.

Georgia should lead the nation in finding common ground on reducing costs and devising a better model of health care coverage.

Andre Jackson,
for the Editorial Board

Atlanta Forward: We look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers.

Through July 18, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Sunday editorial pages will focus on major issues facing the state’s next governor. The questions mirror themes of our Atlanta Forward project.