For those of us (including yours truly) who thought we’d get health care reform done right on the national level and then take a much deserved break in the New Year…that’s looking doubtful. First of all, we aren’t going to be finished even at the national level. I am becoming more convinced that the bill is still worthwhile, for its promise of insurance reform and for helping the uninsured and low income Americans. But I wonder whether it will do anything, much less enough, to control health care costs for the middle class. We still need that public option, or some other way to keep insurers honest. Regulate them like public utilities, perhaps?

And then this article in the New York Times extinguished my last hope of spending all my free time in 2010 playing World of Warcraft – the health care reform fight is coming to the states. 

“The states are the next battle,” said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for the liberal advocacy group Health Care for America Now, “and the insurers and health care industry are primed up and ready to go. The industry has enormous power at the state level, and very few states have state-level consumer groups that are able to lobby effectively against them.”

Health insurers and drug companies give even more money to state legislators than they give to members of Congress.

Some states will have constitutional amendments on the ballot trying to block health care reform measures passed at the federal level.

The idea of amending state constitutions to block the core of the federal health care legislation, including the requirement that individuals and businesses buy insurance, began at the conservative Goldwater Institute in Arizona, the state where the first such measure will appear on the ballot next year.

(Actually, anti-mandate measures are probably not being pushed by insurance companies! Serves them right, getting the tea-baggers all riled up with their faux populism.)

The American Legislative Exchange Council, a business-friendly conservative group that coordinates activity among statehouses, is using Arizona’s proposed amendment as a model. Anti-health insurance reform measures were introduced in fourteen state legislatures. There is even an effort in Iowa along similar lines:

We’ll do our best here at Blog for Iowa to keep our readers informed about health care reform doings in Des Moines during the upcoming legislative session.

And now for a quick update on the bills in Congress. It looks like there will not be a formal conference committee, because that would just give the Party of No more opportunities to try to filibuster the bill. Instead, a final product will be worked out informally between the Democrats in the House and the Senate. You can read more about it in this front page article at DailyKos. And I don’t think it will make a bit of difference in terms of what the final bill includes – we’ll just get the bill sooner.

Alta Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America, Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum).  Watch for Dr. Price’s Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa.  E-Mail Alta Price