Leno’s single payer “Medicare for All” health bill passes Senate

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report

While President Obama and the nation’s Democrats struggle against the strong lobbying efforts of a for-profit health insurance industry, California’s senate voted today to advance single payer legislation - Senate Bill 810 - by a vote of 22 to 14 (21 votes are needed to pass).

Democratic leaders and healthcare advocates claim the legislation will save state, county and city budgets billions while fully insuring all Californians by eliminating the profit and greed of health insurance companies through the creation of a Medicare-like single payer state system. 

Republican opponents of the idea of single payer insurance point out that Democrats passed as SB2 in the final days of the Davis administration, similar legislation the insurance industry successfully repealed and opposed by the state’s current governor through voter referendum in 2007.

When asked if he thinks the governor’s position on single payer healthcare has changed, Andrew McGuire, Executive Director of Healthcare for All, California told the California Progress Report, “No, I do not.”  But McGuire, who also heads the campaign for universal healthcare in the Golden State, Californiaonecare.org, is un-phased by likely veto by the State’s current Republican governor. “We’re in the midst of building a grassroots mass movement,” McGuire told CPR. “When the people demand reform, even conservative legislators will begin to jump on board.”

While the California Medical Association supported SB 2, opponents like the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons coined the universal coverage passed as SB 2, “Pay or Play,” and this law was repealed by voters unfamiliar with the concept.

Despite the recent GOP victory of Senator Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, McGuire claims any analysis of that vote as a “repudiation” of healthcare reform “is simply not true,” contending that for the last decade Gallup, Field and Kaiser surveys have consistently shown Californians favor universal, single payer health insurance similar to Medicare – a program with which they are familiar – with voter sentiment improving for such a program as late as November, 2009.
 
Registered Democrats largely support the idea, while registered Republicans largely oppose it.

McGuire and other advocates for SB810 are furious about what they describe as “disingenuous” attacks by opponents of single payer health insurance.  “The Republicans and many reporters are saying that SB 810 creates new spending for the state,” explained {ALI BAY}a spokesperson for Senator Leno.  “That is NOT the case. Single-payer health care works by pooling the resources we already spend collectively as a state on health care – and then by cutting out the middleman - for-profit insurance companies - we can reduce administrative waste and cover all residents.”

Earlier Leno stated, “There is no new spending – in fact the state already spends a good chunk of its payroll on health insurance already, like benefits for fire fighters, teachers, public servants, not to mention all of our safety net programs that provide health care. All of those resources, in addition to employer and employee contributions, would simply be redirected into universal health care for all.”

“The LAO said that if the bill was paid for by the way the sponsors of the 2004 legislation suggested in 2004, we’d have a shortfall of $40 billion dollars. The $40 billion would be the shortfall only if we used the same tax scheme,” explained McGuire. “If we propose a 3.5% tax on employees and and 8.5% tax on employers, for a total of 12% tax on wages, there would be no deficit and full coverage,” something McGuire claims most Californians currently lack, even calling many health insurance programs, “junk insurance.”

SB 810 calls for no tax increase on the first $7k of wages earned by Californians, reducing the burden on the lowest income wage earners.

According to McGuire, single payer health insurance would cost Californians less, (12% versus current insurance of 22-25%), and provide full insurance, including dental and vision, without deductibles and without co-pays.

“Auto insurance in California would go down because of single payer health insurance,” McGuire adds, “and it wouldn’t cost anything to the state because its self-funded.”

At the request of millions of single-payer health care advocates, Leno authored SB 810 “because it is the only health care reform that can truly contain health care costs and provide every Californian with comprehensive, quality, affordable health care,” according to his office. 

This “Medicare for All” type of program works by pooling together the money that government, employers and individuals already spend on health care and using it more efficiently, claim its advocates.

Single payer advocates also claim, these are not “new dollars” as opponents to SB 810 claim. They are existing dollars put to better use by cutting out the for-profit middle man. The bill ensures that 95% of every health care dollar is devoted to patient care, not insurance company profits.

Currently California spends $200 billion annually on what single payer advocates call “a fragmented, inefficient health care system that wastes 30% of every dollar on administration. SB 810 is intended to eliminate wasteful spending and put doctors back in charge of health care planning. Patients would choose their own providers and hospitals, and the state of California will end wildly unaffordable health care premiums, inadequate coverage and life-threatening insurance company denials.

Advocates argue the fact that the United States pays twice the per capita health care costs of all other industrialized countries and rank 37th among nations in health care results according to the World Health Organization, clearly demonstrates the failure of our current system.

“Many of those who claim they are happy with the current system either mean they have enough disposable income to pay for the 33% profit of insurance companies or they haven’t needed the health insurance yet to find the lifetime caps on spending imposed by for-profit insurers," McGuire told CPR.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dan Aiello, is the Sacramento reporter for the California Progress Report.