SB 810 California healthcare answer

October 22, 5:09 PMCentral Coast Democrat ExaminerRobert Cuthbert

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Photo: CA Senate, Senator Leno

California medical healthcare reform has languished for years. Now, with so-called healthcare reform in Washington unlikely to have a public option, progressive activists begin to rally for single-payer healthcare reform.

California State Senator Mark Leno (D-SD 03) introduced early this year a single-payer healthcare reform bill. His SB 810 is almost identical to a prior bill authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-SD 23 2008) that passed both the Senate and Assembly twice in past sessions. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both attempts at healthcare reform.

SB 810 would establish the California Universal Healthcare Agency to administer a single-payer healthcare system. The new healthcare system will make the State the insurer of all residents. The plan takes federal monies already coming to the State, combines that with premiums and employer contributions, to fund the program.

According to Healthcare For All, an advocacy group, “The total cost of the new system will be less than the cost of the agencies and insurance policies that it replaces.” “California’s economy, its people, and its businesses will save money, and get better health results.” The group states, citing documentation by the Lewin Group, “Most of the savings will come from reduced administrative costs and from bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.”

First commissioned by the State in 2002, then by Health Care for All in 2004, the Lewin Group report documents significant savings under a single-payer system. “We estimate that average family spending for health care would decline to about $2,448 per family under the Act in 2006, which is an average savings of about $340 per family,” according to a Lewin executive summary. The reports accounted for new taxes, employer adjustments, new healthcare spending, and the elimination of some premiums. They expect a “net reduction in health spending” is expected while insuring all Californians.

Bill Carlsen, Health Care for All contact person in Lompoc, calls not providing healthcare for all as “barbaric” and “morally irresponsible.” “It’s disconcerting, I can’t understand the opposition to reform, unless it’s from the insurance companies who are the only ones who will lose.” Carlsen sees a fiscally responsible path to securing universal healthcare in Leno’s SB 810. “It’s more expensive for taxpayers to pay for the uninsured going to emergency rooms, instead of getting preventative care first.” “Treating at the tail end costs more, as disease progresses untreated it becomes more costly, then the cost trickles down to us.”