California Health Reform Bills Would Expand Children’s Coverage, But Shrink From Comprehensive Reform of Industry

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Leaders’ New Proposals Narrow “Individual Purchase Mandate,” But Still Bow to Private, For-Profit Insurance Industry

By Jerry Flanagan
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)

New legislative health care proposals by California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and state Senate leader Don Perata focus on covering more children and omit or narrow the “individual mandate” to buy insurance that marked Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) has praised the new plans for acknowledging that individuals should not be forced to buy private insurance, but faulted the proposals for their failure to keep health care affordable by regulating insurance rates.

FTCR expressed disappointment that the proposals continue to rely exclusively on the private insurance market instead of giving Californians access to the nonprofit public insurance pool already offered by the state employee benefit program through CalPERS.

Judy Dugan who I work with a FCTR put it this way: "Both plans appear aimed at a worthy baseline of expanding the state Children’s Health Insurance program, but beyond that any progress will be incremental at best, as interest groups including businesses and insurers chip away at the complex legislation. It’s a far cry from the ambitious calls for universal health care that opened the debate on reform."

Both measures call for an expansion of state-subsidized health insurance for children whose families are of low or modest income, though the state must acquire additional federal subsidies first. Both Nunez and Perata would allow children who are not in the U.S. legally to gain coverage, and would raise the income limit for participating families to 300% of the federal poverty level, using nearly identical language.

The proposals would fail to assure broad affordable coverage, because they bow to the medical industry complex in several ways: