IV 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. CON. RES. 78 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 24, 2009 Ms. Baldwin (for herself, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Petri, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Linder, Mr. Wu, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Mr. Holt, and Mr. Kind) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Expressing the support of the Congress regarding the need to facilitate State innovation in national health care reform.

Whereas there are 45,700,000 people who have been without health insurance coverage at some point during 2007 in the United States; Whereas, at any given point in time, between 13 and 20 percent of the United States population is covered by Medicaid, a program administered by States according to broad Federal guidelines; Whereas the percentage of uninsured residents varies by more than 20 percentage points across the States; Whereas States want affordable health care that will provide meaningful coverage to their residents, and urge the Federal Government to lead a Federal-State partnership to reach that goal; Whereas State governments possess an ability to respond to and predict the health care needs of their residents within the context of a Federal-State partnership; Whereas States have the unique flexibility have to meet varying social, political, economic, demographic, and market conditions in the various States; Whereas States, in the absence of national action, have taken the lead in health care reform, implementing new initiatives, passing legislation, and debating ambitious reform proposals; Whereas several States have already enacted comprehensive health care reform initiatives, and many more States are moving towards additional types of health care reform; Whereas at least 1 State has been successful at significantly lowering its uninsurance rate through State-level reforms; Whereas many more States have undertaken incremental efforts that can provide important lessons for other States and for national policy across a broad range of issue areas, including payment reform, quality improvement, disease management, long-term care, cost containment, and coverage expansion; Whereas, even with national action, States can continue to play a critical role to supplement Federal action, ensuring consumer protections and expanding available services; Whereas Federal support and encouragement of States’ initiatives is key to making health care accessible to all; Whereas the national health care system can incorporate and apply lessons learned from successful State-level experiments, both to improve national strategies enacted by Congress and to help prepare the way for future stages of reform; Whereas States should work in partnership with the Federal Government to achieve clear national goals and objectives for improving our health care system; Whereas States may have the ability to achieve national goals and objectives more quickly and effectively if permitted the flexibility when implementing aspects of national reform; Whereas States that object to segments of a proposed national reform effort may come to support that reform if they are permitted to make modifications, while committing to achieving objectives of reform; and Whereas there is strong bipartisan support for an approach to health reform that incorporates the principles of Creative Federalism: Now, therefore, be it

That the Congress commits to include, within legislation authorizing national health care reform, provisions that facilitate State innovation and that— (1)promote the unique role of States as innovators in health care reform, recognizing their distinct competencies; (2)feature flexibility for States in implementing national goals and objectives for health care reform, taking into consideration varying political, economic, and market conditions; (3)facilitate States’ efforts to improve upon and expand the goals and objectives of national health reform; and (4)incorporate the principles of State innovation espoused in the Health Partnership Act and Health Partnership Through Creative Federalism Act.