PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha on Thursday proposed restructuring the state's health and human services agencies and creating a state-run public health insurance option, which his office described as long-term measures to stabilize the state's health care system.

Under the first proposal, the existing agencies would be reorganized into two cabinet-level agencies. A Health Administration and Financing Agency would take over health regulatory functions now spread across the Department of Health, Medicaid, the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner and HealthSource RI. A Human Services Agency would run non-health programs now handled by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Healthy Aging and the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The plan would also create an Office of Health Policy and Planning to coordinate health data collection and analysis and guide long-term policy. The attorney general's office said the new office was modeled on similar agencies in other states.

The second proposal, developed with researchers at Brown University's Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research, would create a public insurance plan offered on and off HealthSource RI, the state's insurance marketplace. Neronha said the coverage would mirror the state employee health plan. The plan would be open to people and any Rhode Island employer, and would not affect Medicaid or Medicare, according to the office.

The office said more than 25% of Rhode Islanders are underinsured and that federal health care changes are expected to cause 52,000 residents to lose coverage. It also cited steep annual premium increases approved for private insurers over Neronha's objections.

"I urge state leaders to consider these proposals and work to implement them after I leave office," Neronha said.

The office is accepting written public comment on the proposals by email through Nov. 30.

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