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> Plan for IN's uninsured in danger
Southsider2k12
post Feb 28 2007, 01:10 PM
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http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...0427/-1/ZONES04

QUOTE
Plan for state's uninsured in peril
House snubs cigarette tax hike designed to help cover 120,000 Hoosiers



By Mary Beth Schneider
mary.beth.schneider@indystar.com

A top priority of Gov. Mitch Daniels -- raising the cigarette tax to fund a health insurance plan for hundreds of thousands of Indiana's poor -- was rejected Tuesday by the Indiana House, a vote that left its prospects hazy at best.

How they voted

Only 19 Republicans joined 25 Democrats to support House Bill 1008, which would have raised Indiana's 55.5 cents-per-pack cigarette tax by 25 cents. The House voted 44-52 to reject the increase. The roll call:

Yes
Terri J. Austin, D-Anderson; Dennis T. Avery, D-Evansville; Jeb Bardon, D-Indianapolis; Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis; Charlie Brown, D-Gary; Tim N. Brown, R-Crawfordsville; Lawrence Buell, R-Indianapolis; Duane Cheney, D-Portage; Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis; Dave Crooks, D-Washington; Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville; John Day, D-Indianapolis; Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte; Mae Dickinson, D-Indianapolis; Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville; Dick Dodge, R-Pleasant Lake; Cleo Duncan, R-Greensburg; Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville; Jon Elrod, R-Indianapolis; Phil Hoy, D-Evansville; Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette; Don Lehe, R-Brookston; L. Jack Lutz, R-Anderson; Carolene Mays, D-Indianapolis; Richard McClain, R-Logansport; Joe Micon, D-West Lafayette; Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne; Tim Neese, R-Elkhart; David Orentlicher, D-Indianapolis; Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington; Phyllis Pond, R-New Haven; Gregory W. Porter, D-Indianapolis; Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster; Milo Smith, R-Columbus; Vernon G. Smith, D-Gary; Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso; Steven R. Stemler, D-Jeffersonville; Dan Stevenson, D-Highland; Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis; Amos Thomas, R-Brazil; John D. Ulmer, R-Goshen; Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon; Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington; Matt Whetstone, R-Brownsburg

No
Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes; Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis; Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg; Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville; Randy L. Borror, R-Fort Wayne; Jim Buck, R-Kokomo; Woody Burton, R-Greenwood; Dave Cheatham, D-North Vernon; Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield; William Cochran, D-New Albany; Bill Davis, R-Portland; Nancy Dembowski, D-Knox; Jerry Denbo, D-French Lick; Ryan Dvorak, D-South Bend; Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale; Bill Friend, R-Macy; David Frizzell, R-Indianapolis; Craig R. Fry, D-Mishawaka; Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne; Terry Goodin, D-Crothersville; F. Dale Grubb, D-Covington; Eric A. Gutwein, R-Rensselaer; Earl Harris, D-East Chicago; Tim Harris, R-Marion; Ron Herrell, D-Kokomo; Phil Hinkle, R-Indianapolis; Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute; Tom Knollman, R-Liberty; Eric Koch, R-Bedford; Bob Kuzman, D-Crown Point; Linda Lawson, D-Hammond; Dan Leonard, R-Huntington; David L. Niezgodski, D-South Bend; Cindy Noe, R-Indianapolis; Dennie Oxley, D-English; Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City; Phil Pflum, D-Milton; Scott Reske, D-Pendleton; Kathy Kreag Richardson, R-Noblesville; Michael A. Ripley, R-Monroe; Paul Robertson, D-Depauw; Bill Ruppel, R-North Manchester; Thomas E. Saunders, R-Lewisville; Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville; Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe; Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton; Vern Tincher, D-Riley; Jerry Torr, R-Carmel; P. Eric Turner, R-Marion; Dennis Tyler, D-Muncie; Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville; David A. Wolkins, R-Winona Lake

Excused
Matt Bell, R-Avilla; Ralph Foley, R-Martinsville; Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis

Not voting
B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend

The House voted 52-44 against a bill that would have raised the state's 55.5 cents-per-pack cigarette tax by 25 cents. That's the minimum Daniels had sought, and far from the $1 that anti-smoking advocates had wanted.

But the bill hit a bipartisan wall of resistance in the House, where only 19 of Daniels' fellow Republicans joined 25 Democrats in supporting House Bill 1008 at the legislative session's midway point.

Daniels' office issued a statement saying the governor was "surprised and disappointed in the outcome but is hopeful there is still a way to move forward effectively to reduce Indiana's smoking rate, immunize more children, and expand health-care coverage for working Hoosiers."

But Rep. Charlie Brown, the Gary Democrat who had led the fight in the House to raise the tax, said he's through.

"This is no longer my battle. It is the governor's battle," Brown said. "This was the governor's proposal, and the governor could not produce the votes from his caucus to get it through."

A 25-cent increase would have generated an estimated $130 million a year in new money, an amount that would have grown to $480 million when leveraged with federal funds and participant contributions. The money, Daniels estimated, would have helped provide health coverage to about 120,000 people. As many as 850,000 adult Hoosiers go without health insurance.

Whether the plan can be revived was left in doubt after Tuesday's vote.

Sen. Luke Kenley, the Noblesville Republican who is chairman of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, seemed rocked by the defeat in the House.

"You're kidding me," he said. "I don't know if it can (be salvaged) or not."

While the Senate could insert the tax increase in a House bill, including a new state budget that the Senate is beginning to work on, Kenley said that may not happen.

"If the House doesn't have the will to pass a tax . . . we'll have to examine how serious the need is and whether there's some reason to believe they might be willing to behave differently," Kenley said.

Aaron Doeppers, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, was also disappointed by the vote.

"They're playing political games, and the kids of Indiana have lost," Doeppers said.

It was the second time Daniels has asked for a cigarette tax increase and been denied.
In 2006, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the General Assembly, he also sought an increase of 25 cents, though the plan never made it out of committee.

This year, Daniels linked the increase not just to reducing Indiana's second-highest-in-the-nation smoking rate, but to health initiatives: anti-smoking programs, childhood immunizations and a privately run health insurance program for the working poor -- people earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

A bill containing that plan, Senate Bill 503, earlier passed the Senate, but with no funding mechanism.
The House plan crafted by Brown varied from Daniels' plan, focusing mostly on providing health insurance through existing government programs for families with children who make up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and for childless adults who make up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level.

That's $9,800 for a single person or $13,000 for a couple.

Tuesday, Brown told the House that the bill needed bipartisan support in order for the debate on this issue to continue and said he would have to have 25 Republican votes. If he had gotten those, he said, the bill would have passed.

Despite the controversial nature of the bill, there was little debate.
Rep. Jim Buck, a Kokomo Republican who voted against the bill, said he opposed funding health care "on the back of a tobacco tax."

No Democrats spoke against the bill, but Brown said many represent tobacco-growing areas or border areas where tobacco retailers fear they will lose business if the price of a pack goes up. Some are legislative newcomers reluctant to vote for a tax increase in their first year in office.

In an effort to quell talk that the proposal was not bipartisan in spirit, Brown suspended debate on the bill Tuesday for a time in order to add two last-minute amendments by Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville.

Those changes would have allowed young adults 19 to 24 to stay on their parents' health insurance plans, even if they are not in college, and also gave people who pay their own health insurance a deduction on their state income taxes.

"I encourage you, I implore you, I plead with you, let's make this (vote) bipartisan," Brown said.
Rep. Tim Brown also urged lawmakers to keep the bill alive, even if they didn't agree with all of its aspects, in order to keep the debate moving.

The legislative process, he said, "is a winding road. We're just at the second or maybe third turn of a long, winding road."

Tuesday, though, that road came to what may be a dead end.


Call Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider at (317) 444-2772.
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Roger Kaputnik
post Feb 28 2007, 05:09 PM
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I think that the gov't should just quit subsidizing tobacco, period. Very few people do it as a main line of business; at least in Hoosierland, it is a parttime gig to get the gov't handout. These people need to quit sucking our money from the gov't teat and contributing to horrendous health and health costs.


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