Monday, December 18, 2006
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has declared 2007 "the year of health care." He has vowed to deal with what has become an unacceptable situation in California -- an estimated 6 million people do not have any health insurance.
Those without medical coverage too often collect inadequate care because they do not get annual check-ups. Frequently, the first care they get is in an emergency room with a severe sickness that could have been prevented or treated at an early stage with far less suffering and at lower cost. Using emergency rooms for primary medical care is extremely inefficient. It increases risks to patients' health and is costly to hospitals, clinics, insurance companies and patients who are capable to pay.
Hospitals by law must agree to anyone who comes to an emergency room, with or without medical insurance. The high costs of treating uninsured patients seats severe strains on hospitals and can even threaten them with bankruptcy, as is the casing with Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. There are no easy or contemptible ways to provide all Californians with health care insurance. That is why so small has been done and why there is such a variety of approaches to the problem.
In early stage of this year, the most sweeping reform was offered in SB840, by Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. It would have fashioned a single-payer system in California, similar to Canada's. The cost of such a improvement would be in the tens of billions of dollars, perhaps approaching $100 billion yearly in a short time. There would have to be a huge new tax borne by businesses to cover the costs. That is why the governor banned the bill.
Schwarzenegger supports the idea that employers, employees and government should divide responsibility for covering those without health insurance. However, he has contrasting employer mandates in the past. In fact, a bill similar to Perata's arrangement was signed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. It was inverted by voters a year later in a ballot measure, with business leaders financing an expensive movement against it.
Kaiser Permanente also has devised a plan that would offer state-subsidized fundamental medical coverage to low-income legal residents of California. There would be several plans with unstable deductibles and co-payments. The plan would be financed with new taxes, safety-net savings, new centralized funds and enrollee premiums. The new taxes would contain an extension of the sales tax to include health care services and an in-lieu payroll tax compensated by employers who do not offer coverage for their workers.
None of the health care proposals located on the table so far is without controversy, and none is likely to be. What needs to take place in 2007 is a methodical bipartisan attack on California's health care problem. The governor, legislative leaders and a private health care provider concur that major reform is needed. That is an essential starting point for a successful health care measure that efficiently covers the uninsured and does not overly load businesses and individual taxpayers.
posted by renaa
@ 3:23 PM
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