Pennsylvania healthcare battle shows states struggle alone

The current two-year legislative session is ending without a health-insurance compromise between the Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Senate Republicans. The Senate GOP says that in the face of a weakening state economy, Rendell is overreaching with proposals that would require tax increases to sustain them over the long haul. But Pennsylvania is far from alone in falling short of Rendell's goal: To date, Massachusetts has made the greatest progress toward reducing the ranks of the uninsured through its 2006 health law. But similar initiatives in other states have been defeated in political arguments over how to pay for them, according to the Washington, DC-based Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.