MARK WAITE / PVT Tort reform would help curb the cost of health insurance in Nevada, Larry Harrison, past president of the State Association of Health Underwriters told the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce Monday. Advertisement

Nevada ranks dead last in the nation in spending on health care, Larry Harrison said at a Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Terrible's Lakeside Monday.

But the past president of the State Association of Health Underwriters added that efforts toward tort reform could help keep in check, or even lessen, the cost of health insurance in Nevada.

"If the word gets out how unfriendly Nevada is to the uninsured or the uninsurable, it's going to affect us all," Harrison said.

"We spend less money on health care than any other state in the nation," he said. "Without health insurance, people typically go to emergency rooms."

Harrison said 33 states have some type of safety net for the uninsurable.

Half of the bankruptcies in Nevada in 1999 were attributed to high health costs, he said. But he said it's better to have even a high $10,000 deductible than to have a house seized to pay medical bills.

"We have 400,000 Nevadans without health coverage. My question is: Who are these people?" he asked. "The more people we get in the system, the more it's going to drive costs down."

Harrison said $1 million in federal money has been earmarked as seed money for a program targeting the high-risk insured in Nevada.

Harrison also suggested individuals talk to their agents about purchasing health savings accounts, which provide debit cards and can be rolled over from year to year. The self-insurance program also encourages wellness programs, for things like smoking cessation and weight loss.

Harrison said only companies like Starbucks and Home Depot currently offer health insurance plans to part-time employees.

"We need to get a tort law which means there's a limit how lawsuits can be paid," Harrison said.

The Massachusetts proposal, touted by some politicians this election year, mandates that all of that state's residents have to receive health insurance, is good for the more socialistic policies in Massachusetts, he said after the luncheon. Similar policies in California forced an exodus of some companies, he said. Such a system would work, however, if all the states had the same requirement, Harrison said.

On the other hand, he said a hospital association in Nevada reported they had $440 million in unpaid medical bills.

Harrison said an attempt should also be made to encourage hospitals to lower their costs.

Harrison wasn't just talking to local chamber members. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., a Nevada gubernatorial candidate, listened attentively. Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Barbara Lee Woollen was also in the audience.