California single-payer plan advances
California single-payer plan advances
Friday, January 22, 2010
(01-22) 04:00 PST Sacramento -
As national health care reform grew more uncertain, the
California Legislature on Thursday pushed forward a controversial
proposal to create a single-payer health system in the state.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 6-3 along party lines, with
Democrats in favor of the proposal, which will be considered by the
full Senate next week.
The vote came two days after Massachusetts voters elected a
Republican U.S. senator to fill the seat long held by Democratic Sen.
Ted Kennedy - putting President Obama's national health bill in
jeopardy. Backers of the California plan said the timing was
coincidental and due to legislative timelines.
But political observers said the vote could come back to hurt state
Democrats in November and viewed the move as motivated by the turmoil in
Washington, D.C. Similar incarnations of the California plan have twice
been passed by the Legislature and both were vetoed by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. A spokeswoman for the Republican governor said Thursday
he would veto this bill if it comes to his desk.
Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is sponsoring the bill, and said
states will have to act to create single-payer systems. The public
option, a form of single-payer insurance, appears unlikely to be part of
the final national bill, if there is a final bill.
"We always wished there would be single-payer reform in Washington,
but given the political reality that that's not going to happen, it's
not going to deter us from the pursuit of single-payer in this state,"
Leno said.
The proposal, which is estimated to cost $200 billion, would
eliminate private health insurance in California and replace it with a
state-run system, which would be provided to every California resident.
That system would be overseen by a new state agency that also would
ultimately decide what services the coverage would entail.
The price tag would be paid by pooling all state and federal money
currently spent on health services, which would require federal
approval, along with a payroll tax that would be paid by both employees
and workers. In a previous incarnation of the bill, that tax was set at
16 percent. The financing is not part of the latest version. Backers
also think the single-payer system will greatly reduce administrative
costs, which also would help pay for the system.
Republicans in the Legislature said they were dumbfounded that the
bill would move forward given the climate toward health reform
nationwide.
"I believe the Democrats in Sacramento just don't get it," said Sen.
Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks (Ventura County). "This was literally
48 hours after the most liberal state in the country voted down
Obamacare. They are not listening to people in the state or the
country."
Steven Maviglio, a Democratic consultant, supports a single-payer
plan but said flatly, "this is not the time to do it."
"Anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 24 hours knows this will
not help the Democrats in November and it could hurt them," Maviglio
said. He said the timing would be right "when the state isn't billions
in debt."
Advocacy groups that support the bill disagreed, however. Deborah
Burger, president of the California Nurses Association, called the
timing of California's action "perfect."
"The national bill really is not addressing the needs of Americans
and they really want us to go forward with something that meets our
needs instead of imposing taxes on people who already have health care
benefits," Burger said.
Opponents, though, said the proposal would not address the underlying
cost-drivers in health care.
"It is just reorganizing care and having the government take over
health care decisions," said Charles Bacchi, executive vice president of
the California Association of Health Plans.
Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, is chairwoman of the committee
that approved the proposal and voted in favor of it. She said the cost,
if passed, would be about $1 million in the first year to do initial
administrative planning. She said it would not hurt the state's budget,
which is facing a $20 billion deficit through June 2011, and said she
thinks Californians approve of the effort.
"If it's not going to happen at the federal level, it's important for
us to keep the discussion alive and see if this is a viable option,"
Kehoe said.
But Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics
at the University of Southern California, said he thought the vote was
more of a symbolic move by lawmakers to get the attention of big-money
organizations pushing for single-payer insurance.
"An organization involved in health care nationally is probably
feeling pretty bruised this week. This is the perfect opportunity for
state legislators to remind that organization that they still have
friends in Sacramento," Schnur said.
E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/22/BAAN1BLNTP.DTL
This article appeared on page C - 1 of
the San Francisco Chronicle
the San Francisco Chronicle
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