Can California trigger a national trend for health care reform?
San Francisco Chronicle
April 11, 2002
By Spyros Andreopoulos, Director Emeritus of the Office of Public Affairs at Stanford University Medical Center
(On April 12), California will unveil options calling for a major overhaul on health-care financing. The proposed alternatives include expanding health insurance coverage through modifications in existing programs and three proposals calling for a transition to a single-payer system.
Single payer, which is receiving considerable attention, would replace private insurance and HMOs with a publicly financed, privately delivered system covering 31 million Californians with comprehensive benefits, and would be administered by the state.
Although the three proposals differ in details, generally a single-payer system would offer a health-insurance package modeled on benefits now provided by employers. And it would be financed with new employer payroll taxes and health-care funding from the federal insurance programs of Medicare and MediCal, which would be combined with the new financing system.
Proponents believe single-payer can adequately cover all of the state's residents, including the 6.8 million uninsured, and provide more care for the money through reductions in administrative costs and other efficiencies.
The proposals culminate a two-year study by the Health Care Options Project (HCOP), created by the passage of SB480, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis in 1999.
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/11/ED24365.DTL>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/11/ED24365.DTL
Comment: The final versions of the nine proposals for the California Health Care Options Project have been posted: http://www.healthcareoptions.ca.gov/
The final report of the analysis by The Lewin Group had not been posted by this morning (April 12), but the results will be presented this afternoon in Sacramento, and posted soon.
The forum will be broadcast on The California Channel from 1:00 to 3:30 PM, Pacific Daylight Time, April 12. Also it can be viewed live on the Internet at: <http://www.calchannel.com>http://www.calchannel.com In a few days it will be available in the archives for viewing at: <http://www.calchannel.com/april2002.htm>http://www.calchannel.com/april2002.htm In addition, a videotape can be purchased from the Assembly TV office for $10.00 by calling 916-319-2813.
The Lewin Group analysis will show that the two single payer proposals and the health service model would each fulfill the goals of providing full comprehensive services to absolutely everyone while saving Californians billions of dollars in health care costs. The other six proposals that build on our current system would fall short on equity, universality and comprehensiveness, and would increase health care costs for Californians. One of those six models does come close to universality and comprehensiveness, though it leaves in place many flawed policies of our current system that impair equity. Also, this latter model is the most expensive of the proposals, increasing health care costs for Californians by billions of dollars.
Although this study was done for California, it should have national impact. It establishes forevermore the credibility of the single payer and health service models. Efforts to exclude single payer models from any and all discussions or forums on reform should be exposed as the nefarious, immoral, unethical acts that they are. The credibility and superiority of the single payer model is firmly established. It is now our responsibility to see that we are included in all future activities on reform, even if uninvited. It is time for ubiquitous, aggressive (but genteel) activism.