The vision of a few old duffers sitting around a table playing a harmless game of poker while fattening the state's coffers is pleasant indeed, but the realities behind this image are far less bucolic. Take a look at the website of the National Council on Problem Gambling, an organization established to "increase public awareness of pathological gambling, ensure the widespread availability of treatment for problem gamblers and their families, and to encourage research and programs for prevention and education."

According to the NCPG, in a given year, approximately 1% of the U.S. adults (3 million) meet the criteria for pathological gambling, and another 2-3% have less significant, but still serious problems with their gambling and are considered problem gamblers. Problem gamblers are much more likely than others to have problems with drinking, drugs and smoking, and to suffer from depression. The promotion of gambling as a public policy may be fraught with unintended consequences such as injured individuals and families, and considerably higher costs for necessary increased social services.

Some Alaskan legislators have been advocating a new, privatized retirement plan for Alaskan public-sector workers such as teachers and State employees. This plan is very similar to the increasingly common "401k plans" that have been favored in the last couple of decades by corporations looking to increase profits. One in every four Americans now has a private 401k account, so there are a lot of workers who have privatized retirement accounts. The glowing rhetoric speaks of portability of funds through the employee's career, and the opportunity to manage their own private retirement account and salt away huge stock market gains. Glowing rhetoric aside, how have workers with privatized retirement accounts fared?

According to recent research, workers with retirement accounts are not doing well. The Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute just conducted their nation- wide Retirement Confidence Survey. Institute researchers found that two-thirds of the employees they surveyed believed that they will reach their retirement-savings goal by the time they stop working, but at the same time fewer than half said they are on schedule to do so. The majority of workers interviewed could not keep up with adequate contributions to their private retirement accounts because of everyday bills, child-rearing expenses, and the cost of health insurance.

In the face of Washington's unwillingness to tackle the nation's health care crisis, many states are taking action. To date, 30 states have taken steps to hold employers accountable and increase coverage for uninsured workers and their families without spending scarce state revenues. A summary document of the actions being taken by these states is available for your review.

Some of these states are considering legislation that would require employers to either provide health insurance to their employees or contribute to a state fund to help the uninsured-an approach known as "pay-or-play." For example, the Maryland legislature recently passed a bill that would require employers with more than 10,000 in-state workers to spend 8 percent of its payroll on health benefits or pay the difference to a fund for the uninsured.

Families USA has produced a tool kit, Ideas that Work: Expanding Health Coverage for Workers, to help state policy makers and others interested in exploring different ways to expand coverage for workers in their state. It is designed to help determine whether an employer expansion may be feasible in a state and how it might be designed. The kit includes state case studies and state-level data that can used to compare Alaska to other states.

It is not an easy task staying on top of the massive amounts of material necessary to adequately monitor emerging Alaskan public policy, but we can make a few recommendations that may help in the next session. The first place you will want to visit is the Alaska Citizen's Guide to the Budget, a project of the Institute of Social & Economic Research. See in particular the Other Resources page, which lists a couple of dozen excellent Alaska public policy resources.

You can follow specific bills by going to the Alaska Bill Action and Status Inquiry System (BASIS). This system takes a little getting used to, but click on "Subject Summary" for a good place to start. Contact Kirk Fisher (kirk@alaskapca.org) to get on the free Alaska Primary Care Association health legislation list serve. Contact the Alaska AARP to get on their free list serve regarding local legislative issues affecting older persons. There are more resources out there, but these will give you a good start.

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