Legislature to Tackle Healthcare Reform in 2008

None by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) Healthcare advocates in Utah say the nation's healthcare system is broken. Some Utah lawmakers agree and hope to start fixing it when the legislative session begins later this month.

"If I look at the last ten years and I look at wage increases and at healthcare and its larger increase, we have about 20 years until those two cross and healthcare costs will be more than our regular wages in the state of Utah," says Republican Representative Dave Clark.

Clark says there is a five-step plan to healthcare reform that lawmakers hope to initiate this year. That initiation includes increasing enrollment in current insurance programs for low-income residents; improving consumerism; setting an outline for strategic reform and identifying key components of reform for review.

"I do not think that we'll be able to put our foot on the brake of healthcare costs," says Clark, "but our hope is that we'll be able to take our foot off the accelerator of these ever escalating costs and have them increase at a more normal inflationary rate."

Clark says his bill is just the beginning of what he anticipates will be a three-year process to reform healthcare in Utah. The bill should be available for public review later this week.

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