Let’s Avoid Serious Mistakes in the Next California Healthcare Reform Bill

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Rose Ann DeMoro
Executive Director
California Nurses Association

With its vote today, the Senate Health Committee deserves the thanks for all Californians for its thorough, deliberative process and for taking a principled courageous stand despite the enormous pressure brought to bear by those who were pushing for hurried passage for a badly flawed healthcare bill

Following this vote, the nurses of California offer our pledge to work with legislators, community groups, and labor for genuine healthcare reform that avoids the serious shortcomings of AB x 1.

AB x 1 was rejected not because Californians and the legislature like the status quo or do not yearn for fixing our broken healthcare system. The bill collapsed because it was fundamentally flawed on its merits on access, quality, and cost.

Among our key concerns were the mandate forcing individuals to purchase insurance with no controls on costs or a minimum standard for benefits or quality, the failure to provide meaningful protection to families facing a huge spike in out-of-pocket costs, and the danger that the low employer mandate would encourage employers to drop current coverage.

We also pay note to the serious underfunding of the proposal, represented by a tobacco tax and the absurd premise of basing a health bill on essentially encouraging individuals to smoke.

Many the remarks by committee members during discussion on the bill bear particular note, including committee chair Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s comment that not voting for this bill “does not mean we prefer the status quo, any more than Gov. Schwarzenegger was saying he preferred the status quo when he vetoed SB 840,” a single-payer, Medicare-for-all style bill.

We concur with Sen. Leland Yee who noted, “the only way we can get true health care reform is with a single-payer process” that “is fair and makes sure everyone is covered.”

We look forward to working with Sen. Kuehl, Sen. Yee, and everyone who is dedicated, along with us, to a genuine, comprehensive reform, such as Sen. Kuehl’s SB 840.

In the interim, there is a short term alternative. Adopt AB x 1’s fee on hospitals reimbursed through higher Medi-Cal payments to hospitals proposed in the bill, and use the resulting federal money to expand coverage for children.