The following highlights health issues mentioned in governors' recent state of the state addresses.
Arizona: In her Jan. 12 speech, Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) said that it is the job of the governor and state legislator "to protect and continue to invest in the safety net for those hardest-hit in Arizona" by the current recession and that "part of our call to serve means still caring for those less fortunate, and protecting services," such as health care. She noted that in the last year, "more than 70,000 Arizonans have enrolled in state health care through" the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and KidsCare, Arizona's version of SCHIP. "It would be wrong to hurt our seniors, our youngest children and those who are ill or disabled in the name of balancing the budget," Napolitano said. She said it is "imperative" to "protect our advances in health care, including expanded access to KidsCare for families that need it, investments in health care technology to improve the delivery of care and substantial savings on prescription drugs." Napolitano added, "Congress is likely to increase aid for state Medicaid programs," and "when this happens, Arizona can continue its work to improve health care by enacting quality-of-care measures, building our electronic health records infrastructure and implementing other reforms necessary to ensure that every Arizona family has access to a doctor when they need one" (Napolitano speech text, 1/12).

Arkansas: In his Jan. 13 speech, Gov. Mike Beebe (D) said that, as part of his agenda this year, he seeks to provide "new and better health care programs that offer more options" to state residents. According to Beebe, "by improving the health of our citizens, we can free them from ailments that threaten their well-being and help prevent chronic illnesses that are so devastating and so costly." He called for more options for outpatient care, increased funds for community health centers, and more resources and equipment for nurses and mental health services in schools. In addition, Beebe called for the establishment of a statewide trauma system, increased efforts against cancer, expansion of preventive care services at health education centers, research into treatment options for children with autism, increased dental insurance and expanded access to flu vaccinations. "We can pay for this entire health care package" with a 56-cent increase to the state cigarette tax and "reform of the smokeless tobacco tax," Beebe said. He said, "Improving our health care system will increase productivity at our businesses and decrease the need for remediation in the classroom," adding, "It will make our citizens, and our bottom line, healthier" (Beebe speech text, 1/13).

California: In his Jan. 15 speech, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said that he would not issue proposals on health care or other programs "when we have this huge budget deficit." He said, "I will talk about my vision for all of those things and much more as soon as we get the budget done." Schwarzenegger added that, although "no one wants to take money" from programs such as Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program, "each of us has to give up something, because our country is in an economic crisis and our state simply doesn't have the money" (Schwarzenegger speech text, 1/15).

Georgia: In his Jan. 14 speech, Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) said the state, after the completion of a "thorough review" by its Health and Human Services Task Force, has "determined a course of action that will re-orient our approach to health care by shifting the focus from inputs to results." He said, "First, we are proposing the creation of a new Department of Behavioral Health," which would manage mental health and substance use programs to "improve our responsiveness to mental health needs and ... make funding more transparent." He added that Georgia "will continue to improve care by moving towards a community-based delivery system" for mental health care. "Second," he said, "the bill would establish a Department of Health," which would combine the public health and oversight programs of the state Department of Human Resources and the current functions of the state Department of Community Health. The new agency would "deliver workable solutions on the key health care issues," including "how best to facilitate and finance health care coverage and how to provide needed access," according to Perdue. Perdue also said preventive medicine "will play a bigger role, inefficiencies and redundancies will be eliminated and every stakeholder in Georgia's health care system ... will work as part of a more coordinated effort" (Perdue speech text, 1/14).

Idaho: In his Jan. 12 speech, Gov. Butch Otter (R) said that on Jan. 17 he will reconvene the Idaho Health Care Summit, which originally was organized in 2007 to develop recommendations for making health care more affordable and accessible for state residents. Otter said he would have HCS review the findings of a Select Committee -- which was ordered to speak with residents about the recommendations -- to compile a final implementation plan. He also said that the Healthy Idaho Program, one of the committee's recommendations, could be enacted immediately. The program would offer "affordable individual and family insurance packages for citizens between the ages of 25 and 40 -- who make up the largest group of Idahoans who are uninsured," he said. These policies would be operated by private insurers working in partnership with the Select Committee, according to Otter. He continued, "At the same time, our Idaho Health Data Exchange is making great progress in connecting doctors, hospitals and other health care facilities to enhance the coordination and quality of care for Idahoans throughout our state." Otter also said he would establish the Idaho Health Professions Education Council, aimed at addressing the needs of the state's "growing and aging population." In addition, Otter said he is proposing a 7.5% budget cut for the state's Department of Health and Welfare (Otter speech text, 1/12).

Iowa: In his Jan. 13 speech, Gov. Chet Culver (D) said that the economic stimulus package being developed by President Barack Obama and Congress "could help us address some of our education and health care needs." While state officials "don't know what the final package will look like," Culver said the state needs to "keep working to make health care more accessible and affordable" (Culver speech text, 1/13).

Kansas: In her Jan. 12 speech, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) said that the focus of the state "over the next 90 legislative days should be on the people we serve" and that one of her priorities is to "protect health services for our neediest citizens." According to Sebelius, the state faces many "challenges with disease and illness," such as cancer, which "costs our state approximately $4.4 million a day in lost productivity and direct medical costs." She said that the state has an "opportunity to create a Comprehensive Cancer Center" through a "multi-year collaborative effort including private sector partners, our research universities, health allies from across the region, the Midwest Cancer Alliance and the Bio Science Authority" (Sebelius speech text, 1/12).

New Jersey: In his Jan. 13 speech, Gov. Jon Corzine (D) said, "New Jersey is at the forefront of the nation's efforts to provide health care to our citizens," noting that the state was able to maintain health care coverage for 10,000 children enrolled in the state's Family Care program. He added that "instead of throwing children out of health care, we expanded our program to cover every child and have enrolled more working and moderate-income families than ever before." He said that a "critical element" of the state's health care system is the network of community health centers, which serves nearly 350,000 uninsured or underinsured residents. According to Corzine, "We need these centers today more than ever, as more people lose their insurance or struggle with out-of-pocket expenses." He said that need is the reason the state has increased physician reimbursement rates and provided additional grant funding for the centers (Corzine speech text, 1/13).

Massachusetts: In his Jan. 15 speech, Gov. Deval Patrick (D) praised the "successful implementation of health care reform," under which "nearly 98% of all Massachusetts citizens now have health insurance that they can depend on." In addition, he said that the passage of an economic stimulus package would result in new "jobs modernizing our health care records management system," among other new jobs (Patrick speech text, 1/15).

Oregon: In his Jan. 12 speech, Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) said the state needs to "accept the moral responsibility of making sure that every Oregon child from birth to age 19 has health insurance," and "that means finding the political courage to raise revenue" to expand the Oregon Health Plan program. He said that "there is more than $1 billion in Washington, D.C., with Oregon's name on it -- approved in waivers to cover uninsured children and adults" through the program, but "that billion dollars is going unused -- just as it does every two years -- because we haven't had the political will to come up with our share of the matching funds" (Kulongoski speech text, 1/12).

Virginia: In his Jan. 14 speech, Gov. Tim Kaine (D) said, "Next to education, we spend more on health care than anything else in the budget, even though Virginia's Medicaid program is very lean compared to other states." Kaine said that his latest budget proposal includes a plan to increase the state cigarette tax by 30 cents per pack to "avoid even deeper cuts that would mean denying health care services to some of our poor, elderly and disabled." According to Kaine, the current tax covers "less than half the $400 million in Medicaid costs that smoking creates." He added that his budget proposal "preserves care for the mentally ill" and "protects the advances we made in this biennial budget in funding our health care safety net," as the plan includes "no cuts to free clinics and community health centers" and continues "expansion of prenatal care to low-income mothers so that we can fight an unacceptable infant mortality rate" (Kaine speech text, 1/14).

Washington state: In her Jan. 14 speech, Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) said that the state needs to work to "provide affordable health care" for residents (Gregoire speech text, 1/14).

Wyoming: In his Jan. 14 speech, Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) said that although the current economic recession will force spending cuts, he will support "a fairly narrow pilot which emphasizes individual responsibility for [patients']health, emphasizes additional time with the patient and the primary care physician, tries to make that a financially workable circumstance and is intended to bridge that gap so that people can eventually move to a private insurance market." According to Freudenthal, the project "is a much improved version" of a previous bill because it provides a "clearer statement with regard to the responsibilities of the individual and the role of the state and the role of the employer, but it is also substantially less expensive than the last time we offered it." He said, "If the pilot works, it has some potential going forward to help us address issues of insurance availability and also to help us address the general cost of health care." Freudenthal said that he has "become convinced that the only way we're going to actually address the spiraling cost of health care is to begin to place more responsibility for the management of our health on us as individuals." He added, "I believe that one of the things we have to do not just in this state but in this country is to figure out a way for us to deal with the demand side of health care and begin to take more responsibility for our own health" (Freudenthal speech text, 1/14). Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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