Coverage & Access | [Aug 09, 2006]
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday signed into law a program to expand health care access to the estimated 82,000 uninsured city residents, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Vega, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/8). The San Francisco Health Access Program, proposed on June 20, would not provide health insurance but would give uninsured adults access to the same network of doctors and hospitals, as well as surgeries and drug benefits that other workers in the city have. The goal is to reduce health care costs by emphasizing primary and preventive care, according to Newsom. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors will vote on the plan later this month, though Newsom said he does not need the board’s approval to proceed with the program’s implementation. The program would cost the city an estimated $200 million in the first year, much of which would be redistributed from existing city programs serving the uninsured and low-income residents. Newsom said he “assume[s] costs will increase” but hopes that the city will not “need to do this in five or six years” because the program will be “replaced by some rational national strategy” (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/7). Newsom said implementing the program will be “the most complex” aspect of the plan (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/8).