As Hundreds Back Guaranteed Healthcare for All
Sen. Kuehl: “there is no limit to the number of market reforms that would be needed to force the insurance companies to do the right thing.”
For Immediate Release
April 18, 2007
Contact: Donna Gerber, 916-919-1226 or Charles Idelson, 510-273-2246.
California’s 2007 healthcare debate moved in to high gear today as the state Senate Health Committee approved two key bills to guarantee healthcare for all Californians before hundreds of people in a packed chamber that filled two rooms.
SB 840, Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s Universal Healthcare Act, and its companion financing bill, SB 1014, passed by 6-4 votes Wednesday night following an impassioned call by Kuehl earlier during the committee hearing for action on the state’s healthcare crisis. There were also statements of support by representatives of dozens of community organizations.
The bill establishes a system similar to an expanded and improved Medicare for all, and is sometimes referred to as a single-payer plan because there is one pool of publicly administered funds for care delivered by the current, mostly private hospitals, clinics, physicians and other providers.
In the lead testimony before the committee, Deborah Burger, RN, president of the California Nurses Association, the principal sponsor of SB 840, called it “the only comprehensive healthcare proposal in the legislature this year.” She called on the legislature to “show the public that it is capable of bold, smart courageous leadership by sending SB 840 to the Governor’s desk.”
Noting the plight of growing numbers of Californians as the current system “crumbles around them,” Kuehl called SB 840 the “true gold standard for affordable, comprehensive healthcare reform” and the means to assure “high quality healthcare for all of us.”
Kuehl sharply critiqued the present insurance-based structure noting that insurance industry innovations are “devoted to schemes to weed out risk aversion” in limiting payment and provision of care, and that the insurers’ way to reduce cost is “by reducing access.”
She warned against incremental reforms, and stressed “there is no limit to the number of market reforms that would be needed to force the insurance companies to do the right thing.”
Burger cited the real life stories of David Welch, RN, Nathan Wilkes, and Bonnie Drew, all of whom had to fight with insurance giants over their coverage (their stories may be viewed at www.guaranteedhealthcare.org). Other proposals being considered in the healthcare debate, Burger added, “are not adequate. They would keep in place and further institutionalize the insurance that victimizes the Davids, Nathans, and Bonnies of our communities.”
Insurance giants and the state Chamber of Commerce delivered the main opposition testimony. Anne Eowan of the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies denied that insurance giants “are making excessive profits” or squander up to a third of every healthcare dollar on administrative waste, claiming the latter figure is only 9%-16%.
That brought a rejoinder from Kuehl who noted that “every bill” that seeks to force the industry to spend 85% of every dollar on medical care, and stop siphoning off more than 15% on waste, is vehemently opposed by the insurers.
Sen. Darrel Steinberg challenged the Chamber of Commerce representative Dominic DiMare for not discussing access or quality in its opposition testimony, and to define what proposal it supports to address access, quality, and ever spiraling premium costs. DiMare agreed that “the current system is not working for the businesses of California,” but would not offer a solution.
SB 1014 is the companion bill to SB 840, intended to, as noted in a statement from Sen. Kuehl’s office, fund the guaranteed healthcare system by “drawing in current public spending and replacing all premiums, co-pays and deductibles paid to insurance companies with one affordable premium paid to the system.”
Among the many groups speaking in support of the two bills were Healthcare for All, California, California State Employees Association, Physicians for a National Health Program and its state chapter California Physicians Alliance, California Federation of Teachers, League of Women Voters, Consumer Federation of California, Congress of California Seniors, Consumers Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Older Women’s League of California, and California Church IMPACT (the legislative advocacy arm of the California Council on Churches).
Other opponents include the Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, California Association of Health Plans, California Association of Health Underwriters, and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors of California.