States' governors use varied approaches to focus on covering the uninsured

Proposals range from an individual insurance mandate to pooling public programs.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Feb. 13, 2006.

Washington -- President Bush and lawmakers in Washington are not the only ones signaling that 2006 will be a big year for tackling the issue of access to health care. Governors are making big plans of their own.

A number of the chief executives' state of the state addresses in January featured calls to action on the problems of the uninsured and underinsured. With 36 governors' seats in play in this year's elections and with 46 million or more people now without health insurance, many governors appear poised to make a big push on the access issue at the state level.

"State policy-makers are clearly feeling more on the front lines of this issue," said Alice Burton, vice president at the Washington, D.C., research group AcademyHealth. "For the first time in a couple of years, as they emerge from the budget crisis they've been in for a while, [they are] beginning to think about strategies to address the problem of the uninsured and do it in varying ways."

The following are just a few of the states whose governors have set their sights on coverage gaps in the health care system.

One of the first steps needed to address the problem of the uninsured involves making sure that the very youngest citizens have access to care, Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said in her Jan. 9 address.

"Good health is important to every Kansan, but it's especially important for children in the first few years of life," she said. "An illness then can set back a child's development for years."