Rendell may lose fight to retain health cost council
The agency that tracks the cost and quality of health care across Pennsylvania once again faces a shutdown as a result of a medical insurance dispute between Gov. Ed Rendell and Senate Republicans.
With an executive order keeping the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council in business set to expire on Nov. 30, the administration is looking for a way to extend the order and keep the council's doors open.
''That's under review,'' administration spokesman Chuck Ardo said. ''We would hope that there is a way to keep the council at work, but that remains to be seen.''
But according to one expert, the administration's hands may be tied.
''In general, governors have less authority to issue executive orders than presidents, and the president's authority is limited,'' said Bruce Ledewitz, an expert in state constitutional law at Duquesne University Law School in Pittsburgh.
The Senate adjourned Wednesday, probably for the rest of the year, without agreeing to reauthorize funding for the council, which almost closed in July during a battle between Rendell and the Senate over an insurance subsidy for doctors. The governor's executive order temporarily revived it.
This week, Rendell and Senate Republicans failed to reach agreement on the administration's plan to extend state-subsidized insurance to hundreds of thousands of adult Pennsylvanians.
Senate Republicans said they wouldn't support any insurance plan without an agreement from the administration to extend a state-subsidized medical malpractice insurance fund for doctors.
Rendell balked, saying he wouldn't sign bills extending the so-called MCare fund or the health research council without legislative approval of his insurance plan.
Officials say it's business as usual until they hear differently.
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