Legislature 2009: Health Care

The Associated Press had previously reported that the drive to make health care a key topic of the 60-day session fell short, even before the Tudor's Biscuit fiasco.

AP's Tom Breen follows up today by assessing what Gov. Joe Manchin's might do with those few health care-related bills that passed.

"Poor health is among West Virginia's most severe problems," Breen explains. "Ranking second nationally in obesity and cigarette smoking, the state spends about three-quarters of all health-care dollars on chronic ailments such as diabetes and heart disease."

Breen reports that Manchin "held out cautious praise" for "a proposal to create a new office to oversee health care in the state." But his Health and Human Resources Department lobbied against another successful measure, which would increase state payments for behavioral health centers.

"Although the Legislature passed other health measures this session, the yield is modest despite an ambitious agenda for overhauling health care set forth in January," Breen writes. "Significant parts of that agenda, including proposals to raise the tobacco tax and require chain restaurants to post calorie counts for customers, failed to win passage."