Gov. Edward Rendell has a new "Prescription for Pennsylvania."
Before a packed audience in the School of Nursing's Fagin Hall yesterday afternoon, Rendell introduced a new health care reform program, which promises to redefine how the state addresses public health.
In his speech, Rendell, who graduated from the College in 1969, gave an outline of how he hopes to deal with what he termed "an inherently complex problem" - that of providing adequate medical care to all residents of Pennsylvania.
He said that, while the cost of insurance premiums in the state rose 75 percent between 2000 and 2006, inflation and median wages rose only 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
"This is a state of affairs that must not and cannot be allowed to continue," Rendell said.
And at Penn, and other local universities, officials hope that the plan will stick.
"This is a very exciting moment for Pennsylvania," said Eileen Sullivan-Marx, associate dean for practice and community affairs at the School of Nursing.
And Jill Derstine, chairwoman of Temple University's Nursing School, said she was very happy about Rendell's plan because "it looks like it's very pro-nursing."
Indeed, Rendell pointed out that, in order to meet his goals of reducing "the cost of providing health care for every Pennsylvanian and ensuring every Pennsylvanian has access to affordable health care," he plans to rely heavily on nurses.
For instance, he said that Pennsylvanians use emergency rooms 11-percent more often than the national average, and he estimated that about half of these visits are made only because there are no alternative medical options.
Under Rendell's plan, non-emergency care facilities - staffed by nurse practitioners - will be built adjacent to all emergency rooms in the state, cutting down on both wait times and costs.
Rendell also said he hopes to save a total of nearly $10 billion in annual health-care expenditures by reducing medical errors, erroneous chronic hospitalization, hospital-acquired infections and the cost of caring for the uninsured.
Such savings, he said, will allow for reduced-cost health care, so that small companies that do not currently provide coverage for their employees will be able to do so.
Rendell also announced that, in an effort to improve health, he will focus on cutting down on tobacco use through wellness incentives for employees to quit smoking, increased taxation of tobacco products - including smokeless tobacco and cigars, which are not currently taxed - and a ban on smoking in all public places in Pennsylvania.
