Callifornia State University, Sacramento, on the California Health Care Options Project (HCOP):
I attended the final HCOP meeting yesterday.
It is clear from the Lewin analyses that the single payer proposals meet the goals of universality and cost-savings. In fact – the conclusions are that everyone in California can be covered for less than the projected $151b in 2002.
The major challenges are to:
– Consolidate the three single payer proposals into one
– Organize the broadest coalition of organizations and individuals to inform and educate the population to support single payer
– Build the community-based, political structure, to legislate and implement the program
The recent reports of the collapsing “sick illness” system, and the HCOP assessment, provides the opportunity to confront the need for dramatic change.