Reid: Health reform increasingly important

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that reforming health care has become increasingly important as the economy has become more dire and that Congress must take up the issue.

"People ask me, 'With the economy the way it is, how can you afford to do anything about health care?' I say, how can we afford not to?" the Nevada Democrat told reporters during conference call announcing a new report that found more than one-third of Nevadans under 65 went without health insurance at some point during the past two years.

President Barack Obama has built $640 billion for unspecified health care reform into the budget Congress is currently wrangling over, and lawmakers working on the issue have said they could have reform legislation ready as early as this summer.

"We need to make sure we keep our eyes on the prize," Reid said. "Not only is it the right thing to do, but it's the smart thing to do."

But Reid made no commitments about the final form health care legislation could take. Asked about two potentially controversial aspects -- whether there should be a government-run insurance option available for people to choose, and whether people should be required to buy insurance -- he said it was too soon to get into details.

"I don't think at this stage we should take any single thing off the table," he said. "It should all be there and we should work our way through it. ... I don't favor anything right now. I favor health care reform, nothing specific. That would be getting way ahead of ourselves."

According to the report released Wednesday by the national nonprofit group Families USA, about 841,000 Nevadans went without health insurance in 2007-2008, representing 37 percent of the under-65 population. More than three-quarters of that number were uninsured for at least six months.

In Nevada, Hispanics were much more likely to be uninsured: 59 percent under 65 lacked health insurance, compared to 27 percent of whites and 41 percent of blacks.

Bob Fulkerson, director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said the report "shows once again that the health care crisis is touching both the insured and the uninsured." He advocated quick passage of federal legislation that includes a government insurance option.

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said conditions are ripe nationally for a breakthrough on the issue, with far broader agreement than existed last time it was tackled in 1994. He even approved of Reid's reluctance to commit to specifics.

"In the past, people drawing lines in the sand, pro or con, has been one of the real problems with getting health care reform achieved," he said. "The flexibility the senator's expressing is exactly what we need. In due time we will get these questions answered."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.