Priced Out
Health Care in California
2005
John Garamendi, Insurance Commissioner
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
The State of California Health Care:
* The National Context
* Crisis in Health Insurance: Skyrocketing Health Insurance Premiums
* Crisis in Health Insurance: Paying More for Reduced Coverage
* Health Costs and the Economy
* Crisis in Health Insurance: Growing Uninsured Overall, Greater Reliance on Public Safety Net
* What Happens to the Uninsured?
* Health Status is Declining in California
* California Faces Unique Challenges in Public Health Care Funding Including Lack of Federal Support
* Health Care Quality and Cost Containment
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/PRS/PRS2005/priced-out-health-care-in-california.pdf
Comment: This certainly is not an exciting or provocative quote. So why was it selected?
The first chapter of “Priced Out” describes the health care problems in California, but in a national context. With over 12% of the nation’s population, California exemplifies the national problems and our failures to address them.
This first chapter serves as an excellent, stand-alone report of the some of the more important deficiencies of our entire health care system. We cannot hope for reasonable solutions unless we understand the problems. This report provides a foundation for that understanding. You should consider downloading the first chapter (if not the entire report) for use in your activism for reform.
The report is peppered with specific recommendations that some might describe as incremental tweaking of the system. They should not be lightly dismissed since many of the recommendations would be of value in a universal system of funding health care.
Although some might be distracted by these specifics, Garamendi does list his overriding health care principles. His first principle: “Universal health care coverage is the only real answer.”
The first chapter makes it very clear that the complexities of our dysfunctional system cannot be adequately addressed by simple measures that merely tweak the system, as important as they are. Thorough restructuring of the way that we fund health care will be required to achieve equitable, affordable, comprehensive health care for everyone.