Spitzer Plan

NY Governor Spitzer (they must have had an election that I missed) is planning to roll out a health plan to cover the states uninsured children.

Here are some highlights.

cover all 400,000 children now without health insurance in New York,

while cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to hospitals, nursing homes and drug companies

Details of Spitzer's health plan were sketchy

he did not, for instance, say whether he would cut back any specific services to Medicaid patients, nor did he say how the state would cut prescription drug costs.

his eventual goal is universal health coverage for all 2.6 million New Yorkers without insurance.

While that is unaffordable now, the governor said he will focus this year on providing coverage for 400,000 uninsured children

Spitzer's plans to cut payments to hospitals and nursing homes

Spitzer held out drug companies and insurers as among those who will have to help pay to right the state's health system

Besides freezing rates to hospitals for Medicaid patients, Spitzer also wants to end the days of paying some hospitals for physician-training programs

Medicaid costs the state about $45 billion this year - nearly half of the total state budget.

Oh, yeah. This has legs . . .