In the States

Alabama—which has the second highest obesity rates in the country—will soon become the first to charge overweight government employees extra for their insurance if they don't take steps to improve their health. According to the Associated Press:

Here at the New Health Dialogue we like to highlight reform at the state level because they serve as "laboratories of democracy." One such laboratory, Massachusetts, is succeeding in its efforts to ensure access to affordable health insurance for all Massachusetts residents.

Next week the U.S. Census Bureau will release its updated estimate of the number of uninsured people—now officially at 47 million.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has done its part to track the post-Katrina progress of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, to make the rest of us remember what the people of New Orleans can't forget. Kaiser released its latest survey this weekend, and it's a moving testimony about resilience, about how people can somehow live simultaneously with both enduring hope and increasing pessimism.

Since the passage of Massachusetts’ landmark 2006 health care bill, it has been all eyes on Massachusetts. The results so far: more people have insurance, out-of-pocket spending has decreased, and the bill maintains impressive levels of public support.

It's a far cry from the comprehensive health care overhaul California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger envisioned just a few months ago, but the Republican governor and Democratic state lawmakers are negotiating three related bills that would regulate health insurers, specifically the meager policies sold in the individual market that can leave people with big gaps in coverage if they become sick, the Los Angel

We've posted twice today (here, here) about the need for state, versus federal, health reform, which reminded us that we need to catch you up on events in Ohio, the latest state to see how far it can go in fixing health care even in the absence of that federal solution.

A task force appointed by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, made its recommendations last week, according to Cliff Peale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The expert panel urged that Ohoians be required to buy at least a basic benefit package, with subsidies for low-income people. Insurers would be required to cover anyone who applies. The state would seek to get more people into Medicaid, both by more outreach to those already eligible and by raising income eligibility levels. The Dayton Business Journal also reported that adult children would be able to remain dependents on family's group health insurance policies up to age 29, and the state would also create a reinsurance program to provide affordable coverage to uninsured small businesses, sole proprietors, workers and individuals.

Our colleague Julie Barnes just posted about her health reform talk at the National Conference of State Legislators in New Orleans.