The debate has begun on alternatives to Gov. Matt Blunt’s stalled health insurance program for working parents.

Sen. Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, has filed a bill (SB1283) called the Missouri Health Transformation Act. He introduced it Thursday, the deadline for senators to file bills.

In a brief interview as he arrived in the Capitol on Monday, Dempsey called the bill a work in progress. “It’s as much as we could get filed by the deadline. It’ll evolve,” he said.

Dempsey’s 102-page bill is so fresh that it doesn’t even have a fiscal note estimating the cost yet. A quick read shows that it would combine expanded public coverage with health savings accounts and tax incentives to encourage people to buy private insurance.

Blunt’s plan was supposed to begin providing state-paid insurance this month for 55,000 low-income parents. It hit a roadblock in the House, where Republican leaders said it was too expensive and that they hadn’t approved it.

Dempsey said his one of his goals in crafting a new plan was to “create a culture of wellness.”

For example, students in kindergarten through 12th grade would be required to have daily physical education classes.

Dempsey had drafting help from the wellness czarina herself: Julie Eckstein.

Eckstein was Blunt’s first director of the Missouri Department Health and Senior Services. Before that she was executive director of Healthy Communities St. Charles. She now works for the Center for Health Transformation, a Washington-based organization founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Former Sen. Jon Dolan of Lake St. Louis dubbed Eckstein the wellness czarina. Eckstein used to stress the benefits of exercise and bring fresh fruit to late-night committee meetings. She even had a healthy-snack vending machine installed in the Capitol.