Sisolak, Lombardo face off over health care

With candidates continuing to attack each other as the Nov. 8 midterm election draws near, Gov. Steve Sisolak took to the podium in North Las Vegas to criticize his Republican opponent, Sheriff Joe Lombardo, this time with a focus on affordable health care.

State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, joined Sisolak on Thursday to talk about efforts he and the state’s Democratic party have made in increasing access to affordable health care, specifically highlighting Senate Bill 420 that passed in the last legislative session and will take effect in January 2026.

The bill, sponsored by Cannizzaro and 12 fellow Democrats, requires the director of the Department of Health and Human Services to design, establish and operate a public option for health insurance, also known as the “state government option.” The goal is to improve access to health care and save Nevadans money in premiums.

Sisolak said the public option will save Nevadans nearly $1 billion in the first 10 years. With about 350,000 Nevada residents uninsured, it is expected to expand affordable coverage to nearly 100,000 people by the fifth year and decrease Nevadans’ uninsured rate by up to 12 percent. It will also enact an inflation cap on premiums and lower costs by up to 15 percent, Sisolak said.

The law will also support access to hospitals, rural health clinics and community behavioral health centers, Sisolak said.

Some economic and health care professionals have expressed concerns that it might not be possible to accomplish all of the law’s goals and it may conflict, according to State of Reform. Critics of the bill had said that it could impact private insurance companies that will have to lower reimbursements to maintain their profit margins.

‘Common sense’

Dr. Harpreet Tsui, a practicing internist in Henderson, said at the press conference Thursday that the public option is the kind of “common sense solution” that can help Nevadans get access to health care “when they need it, not just when they can afford it.”

“As physicians, we see too many Nevadans struggle to stay healthy, work and care for their families,” Tsui said. “For too long Nevadans have had too few options. And the options they have are too expensive, especially for low-income and rural families.”

“Too many Nevadans make the difficult choice between putting food on the table for their children and getting the pain in their chest or lower abdomen checked out,” Tsui said.

Lombardo called the public option “bull——” and will not work to address affordability and accessibility of health care, Cannizzaro said.

“That is exactly what is at stake this year,” Cannizzaro said. “That is exactly what we have to lose if we do not continue to have Gov. Sisolak as governor in the state of Nevada.”

“He did not have a solution for how it is that we are going to deliver affordable and accessible health care to Nevadans, and Gov. Sisolak has been doing that. We’ve been working together and the public option is a great example of that,” she added.

Government-run care?

Lombardo was unavailable for an interview, but in a statement to the Review-Journal he pointed to the systematic failures of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Administration.

“Does anyone really think it’s a good idea to let the State of Nevada run our healthcare system too?” Lombardo said in the statement.

He said that the benefit of the public option bill has not been made evident, and “Nevadans don’t deserve to suffer through the beta test” of the public policy. He added that the public option puts additional mandates on insurance companies that will force them to shift costs and raise rates on people in Nevada.

“Unlike Sisolak and (President Joe) Biden, I strongly believe in limited, efficient, and accountable state government. As governor, my job will be to keep the government out of Nevadans’ lives as much as possible,” Lombardo said.

Sisolak pointed to some of the accomplishments he has made, such as joining the Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium to hold drug companies accountable and lower the cost of generic prescription drugs, launching the ArrayRX card program that 10,000 Nevadans have signed up for and protecting coverage for Nevadans with pre-existing conditions as well as ending surprise medical billing.

He plans to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate for home health care workers that will be included in the next budget proposal, and he plans to propose a plan to create the Las Vegas Academic Medical District to establish a “world-class health care system in the state of Nevada,” Sisolak said.

“If elected, I have no doubt (Lombardo) would roll back our progress and halt the public option’s implementation, hurting our families, leading costs to rise, significantly sending back our efforts to address our doctor shortage and strengthen our health care infrastructure,” Sisolak said.

“I firmly believe that expanding affordable health care isn’t just critical to our people and our future, it’s the right thing to do,” Sisolak said.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.