[courtesy of California Progress Report]

•SB1522 to ban junk insurance passes Assembly Health Committee
•AB1945 would impose new rules on insurers who cancel insurance policies
•AB2967 to collect cost and quality data from medical providers passes

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

Key bills of interest to health advocates were heard in the last two days, in, respectively, the Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally, and Senate Health Committee, chaired by Senator Sheila Kuehl.

Hundreds of bills that passed the house where they were introduced must now clear the second house; and the first step of that is to pass policy committees by June 27. A number of bills that would benefit health care consumers were in Assembly and Senate Health committees this week, including a number of key bills that would lay the foundation for comprehensive health reform in the next couple of years. An updated list of bills is available on the Health Access website.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By State Senator Sheila Kuehl

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Elizabeth (Betsy) Imholz
Director of Special Projects
Consumers Union

Strong measures are needed to slow ever escalating health care costs and improve medical outcomes. An important bill to be voted on in the Senate Health Committee June 25, AB 2967 (Lieber), serves both those ends. The bill ensures public disclosure of medical outcomes and other information about health care safety, quality and cost in California-- information that will improve the safety of care and allow consumers and employers to search out the best value for our health care dollars.

Potential cost savings to the state and the healthcare system from AB 2967 are enormous. Public disclosure of safety and quality information, such as mortality rates by hospital, has been shown to lead to improved performance. (See, e.g., “Hospital Performance Reports: Impact on Quality, Market-Share and Regulation”, Hibbard, J., Stockard, J., and Tusler, M., Health Affairs (July/August 2005)). Improving performance saves lives, while also saving money in the health care system for both public and private payers.

by thereisnospoon [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Disclaimer: I volunteer as the Netroots Outreach Coordinator for the Mary Pallant Campaign

Mary Pallant's campaign (which I have written about here, here, here and elsewhere) got a big new boost today: the endorsement of progressive CA State Senator Sheila Kuehl.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sheila Kuehl
Chair
California Senate Health Committee

According to the new statewide poll by the Field Institute, released Monday, the number of Californians who would prefer to receive their health care coverage “through the government” has risen by 9 percentage points since the last poll in 2006, and now stands at 31%, while those who prefer that individuals take responsibility for their own coverage dropped 6 percentage points to 20%, and those preferring employer sponsored coverage declined 4 percentage points to 38%,. “Government provided health coverage” was the only policy option showing an increase in support.

Since 2002, universal health care advocates have rallied around Senate Bill 840, the California Universal Health Care Act which I am proud to have introduced. These advocates have formed the OneCareNow coalition, made up of hundreds of supporting organizations around the state. The coalition has prioritized community education about universal health care and sponsored hundreds of public educational events throughout the year.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Many health-related bills pass policy committee, head to fiscal committee
• Next steps: Deadline to pass Appropriations is May 23rd
• Deadline to pass full floor vote in the house of origin is May 30th

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

For those who follow legislation, last week was the deadline for bills that were introduced this year to pass policy committee, in order to move forward in the process this year.

Many bills cleared this hurdle, but some didn't: for example, a bill opposed by consumer advocates to license so-called "discount" health cards died in Senate Health Committee. Other bills passed, but many have a more uncertain fate in Appropriations, where they will be evaluated for their fiscal impact on the state. If they pass that significant hurdle, then they will be considered for a full floor vote in either the Assembly or Senate by the end of May.

BELOW is a list of health consumer bills--it will be updated on the Health Access California website as the session continues.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Tale of two health care committees
• Senate fails to pass bill that would license and regulate "discount" health cards while Assembly passes legislation to fill out benefits on some bare bones plans
• Bills to allow local county-run health plans to expand, compete; children's coverage, mandatory Medi-Cal managed care, benefits

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

CALIFORNIA SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE

The Senate Health Committee heard nearly two dozen bills on Wednesday in the final hearing before Friday’s policy committee deadline to get bills to a fiscal committee. Following is a roundup of the fate of some of the bills of interest to health and consumer advocates:

DISCOUNT CARDS:

SB 1603 (Calderon) would have directed the state Department of Managed Health Care to license and regulate so-called discount health cards, which promise consumers deep (though often unverified) discounts on medical services from a network of providers (also often unverified). Consumers purchase a list of discount providers at a cost of up to $120/month. The state is in the process of promulgating regulations to address these plans, but current state law bans them, even though some currently operate in California.