Candidate vows vote by state on health care

Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian will launch an initiative to ensure Nevadans get a vote if the state ever faces a choice of opting in or out of a proposed federal health insurance program.

Tarkanian on Thursday signed off on paperwork to submit the initiative to the Nevada secretary of state.

The move, he said, allows the Nevada Health Care Choice Committee to raise money and gather signatures for the effort.

"If you feel this is the best approach for the state, let's have an open debate on it, which is what the initiative process will do," Tarkanian said.

Tarkanian is one of about 10 Republicans seeking the nomination to challenge Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2010.

Reid, the Senate majority leader, is shepherding health insurance overhaul legislation through Congress.

Part of the change calls for the government to create an insurance program, referred to as a public option, that would compete with private insurers and, according to proponents, drive down cost.

The public option is controversial with many politicians, particularly Republicans who paint it as a government takeover of health care.

"Our public option isn't a left proposal or a right proposal," Reid said last week at a news conference, according to the New York Times. "This is a consensus, a compromise that represents months of hard work and debate and will benefit all Americans."

One compromise proposal would allow states to decide whether they want to participate by deciding to opt in or opt out.

Tarkanian said if that compromise makes it through Congress and becomes law, that is where his initiative would come in.

"Part of running for office is to show what you would do. I want it to be known that if I am in office the public should have input," he said.

Republicans in Congress have floated their own version of health insurance overhaul that they argue would cost less money and not include a public option.

Democrats criticized that effort as too little, too late.

The Nevada State Democratic Party said the Republican proposal "accomplishes none of the necessary reforms Americans have demanded."

Tarkanian said there are four things he thinks are important to be included in overhauling health care: Allowing people to buy insurance across state lines; tort changes that would limit how much money juries can award victims of malpractice for pain and suffering; stronger enforcement of rules that make sure people do not use Medicare if they have private insurance that would cover their needs; and reducing coverage mandates by states that he says drive up costs and reduce choice.

Tarkanian also said that insurance companies should not be allowed to drop people because they have pre-existing medical conditions and that no children should go without health insurance even "if that is an additional cost to the government."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.