Health Care For All Iowans, One Pack At A Time

Health Care For All Iowans, One Pack At A Time

The trifecta means doing the right thing on health care:

Democrats unveiled a plan today that would offer universal health coverage, with funding coming from a $1 per pack increase in the state's cigarette tax.

Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines and Rep. Ro Foege, D-Mount Vernon, head the Health and Human Services Budget Committee, which will begin hearings on the issue next week.

Under the plan, the cigarette tax increase would be approved this year, raising about $134 million. About half of that money would plug the gaps in current health care programs for the elderly and poor, such as Medicaid and free clinics.

``The Democrats have campaigned on universal health care for 25 years,'' Foege said. ``With a Democratic Legislature and a Democratic governor, there's no better opportunity to cover every Iowan.''

The Overrated One will sputter with rage about tax and spend lefties, but even AHnold is talking about universal health coverage in Kah-lee-FORN-ya, so it's rapidly becoming a consensus issue. Of course, just a couple years ago the Iowa Republican platform declared "health care is a privilege, not a right" so we may not be to the bipartisanship level yet...

I'm not a big fan of the social stigmatization tactics of the anti-smoking movement, which I think is driven as much by contempt for smokers as by real or in some cases imagined public health benefits. Though these Austrailian cigarette pack warnings have some merit. Taxation, however, is both a don't start deterrent and a revenue raiser, and using the money for health care is a good and just cause.

Nice to see our own Ro Foege get his day in the sun even if he's now only the second most prominent Democrat in Mt. Vernon (and I say that with all due respect to Dave Osterberg...)