Newspapers Highlight Health Care Stances of Gubernatorial Candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania

Gubernatorial candidates in Michigan and Pennsylvania recently discussed their positions on a variety of health care issues, including the uninsured, the rising cost of prescription drugs and Medicaid funding.

• Michigan: Gubernatorial candidates Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus (R) and former Gov. James Blanchard (D), as well as state Sen. Alma Smith (D), the running mate of candidate Rep. David Bonoir (D-Mich.) and a representative for state Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) spoke on May 13 to about 300 Detroit-area health care workers at an annual meeting about treating the uninsured and underinsured, the Detroit News reports. Posthumus said if elected he would support preventive services, lobby Congress to provide more Medicaid funding and push consumers to be more responsible for their own health. The Democratic candidates said that Gov. John Engler (R), who is not running again because of term limits, has "gutted" the state's Medicaid program, the public health department and mental health services. Smith said that the state could spend more money on "human lives" rather than roads and corporate gifts. Blanchard said that the state has a "serious crisis in health care." Blanchard, Smith and Cassandra Gray, a representative of Granholm, said they would use a greater percentage of the state's national tobacco settlement money for health services (Webster, Detroit News, 5/14).
• Pennsylvania: Democratic candidates State Auditor Bob Casey Jr. and former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell "largely mirror one another's" views on health care, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Both support expanding programs to help the uninsured, including the state's CHIP program, and they differ only slightly on how to help uninsured adults obtain health coverage. Casey would use the state's national tobacco settlement money to provide low-cost health insurance to the families of laid-off workers or residents with annual incomes less than $44,000 for a family of three. The plan, which would include an average premium of $50 a month, would expand eligibility for health benefits to about 52,000 people, Casey said. Rendell has proposed a similar plan, but his proposal would be funded through a federal Medicaid waiver. Both candidates also have proposed plans to "shore up and expand" PACE, the state's prescription drug program for seniors, which is funded in part by revenue from the state lottery. The program costs have been outpacing its revenue in the last several years. To offset the program's deficit, Casey has proposed applying for a federal Medicaid waiver to reallocate funding to PACE and adding new games and drawings to increase revenue from the state lottery. Under Casey's plan, couples with annual incomes less than $23,880 would pay a $6 copayment for prescription drugs, and couples with incomes between $23,880 and $29,850 would pay a $10 copayment and a $40 monthly deductible. Casey says the plan would benefit an additional 300,000 seniors. Rendell's plan would rely on similar funding mechanisms but would only expand PACE eligibility to about 150,000 seniors. Rendell also would try to negotiate lower drug prices for all seniors using the state's purchasing power (O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/14).