California Healthcare, the Budget Crisis, and Another Chance to Get It Right

By LjRose

In the fall of 2006, a healthcare bill (SB840) that would have provided healthcare for ALL Californians and saved California an estimated $343.6 billion passed both houses of the legislature. It then went to Arnold who – fearing the displeasure of the insurance industry – vetoed it before countering with his own unpopular solution (ABX11). The majority of Californians who supported Senator Sheila Kuehl’s SB840 find themselves wondering whether we might have had something resembling a functional budget today had Arnold not chosen to placate the insurance industry at that time.

SB840 was re-introduced in Jan. 2007 with some changes in language. It passed the Assembly Floor Friday, Aug. 29th and the senate on Sat., Aug. 30th and sits on Arnold’s desk today as a historic first. Never before has a proposed universal healthcare plan for all Californians passed the scrutiny of the entire legislature.

At the most recent hearing where the bill was placed into the “waiting for a budget” pile (i.e., suspense) the chamber was packed with supporters ranging from physicians, nurses, and labor union members to teachers, medical students, and then some. One supporter – a medical student – mentioned sacrificing attendance at a required radiology lecture that morning in order to appear at the hearing. A total of 7 individuals appeared to oppose the bill – all of them there as part of their job (i.e., paid appearances, [sic.] lobbyists) representing various insurance industry organizations. This Californian wondered whether any of these folks would have bothered to show up had the hearing been on their “day off”.

SB840 would have cut healthcare costs by eliminating private insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, the requisite billions in corporate compensation packages, excessive drug costs, and private-insurance related administrative costs the latter of which has risen higher than even the current inflation rate. Most of the 7 min. your MD is allotted to figure out what’s wrong with you is spent on insurance company paper-pushing requirements which usually necessitate hiring extra paper-pushing labor to complete hence the skyrocketing costs cited by doctors in keeping their doors open and cited by insurance companies as “the high cost of healthcare”.

Ed Begley Talks California Healthcare

SB840 would have cut the cost Californians are paying right now for the mandatory care provided to all those uninsured people waiting in the emergency room (those people who get in the way of your getting seen within 48 hours for your migraine). By replacing current private insurance-based costs with a shared payroll tax and redirecting current healthcare funding all into one pot, this plan which covers ALL California residents has gained popular ground especially in light of the budget crisis.

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