California's New Road to Health Care Reform

Standing on the east steps of the California state capitol yesterday for the announcement of the California deal on health care reform, I was keenly aware that we had reached a pivotal moment--an historic crossroads--in the search for real solutions to transform America's health care system.

Yesterday, California took a giant step towards assisting the growing number of hard working, tax paying, middle class families whose only health care plan is a prayer that they don't get sick; whose only doctor is an emergency room; and whose only realistic chance to life free of both increasing health care costs and being an illness away from financial disaster is the plan that passed the California State Assembly yesterday.

SEIU was there to endorse the health care reform plan on behalf of SEIU's 600,000 California members and the patients they serve.

The plan passed in California is practical, drawing from the lessons of a Republican Governor from Massachusetts and the plans of the three Democratic presidential front runners. The plan is principled, meeting the twin goals of reducing costs for the insured while expanding coverage for nearly 4 million uninsured.

And this plan is precedent-setting, because if California, the most populous and diverse state in the nation can make health care happen, then this country can get it done as well.

For those who say let's wait, procrastinate or engage in more debate--with all due respect I say the failed road to change for America's health care system is littered with the dreams of the perfectionists, guarded by the assassins of the special interests, and not well-traveled by the privileged with the gold standard of benefits.

The one single and repeatedly proven lesson Americans have learned in the decades of failed efforts of reform is simply this:

THE LONGER WE WAIT, THE WORSE IT GETS.

Waiting is just not an option for Susan in Altadena. Susan purchased a basic PPO policy with a high deductible back when she had the confidence of a young woman with few health troubles.

Recently, Susan was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. As you might imagine, she met her deductible quickly, and expected that her insurance would begin to start paying 80 percent of the remaining treatment. Instead, her insurance provider informed her that breast cancer was not covered under her policy because it wasn't a "catastrophic illness"--tell that to anyone who has lived with the disease. They refused to pay for any exams, lab tests, prescriptions or treatments.

When Susan tried to buy a better plan, she was turned down, told it would be about 10 years before they would consider it.

Because of her medical expenses, Susan today has a $12,000 medical bill sitting unpaid on her desk and mounting credit card debt. She is already delaying treatments because of the cost and hoping the cancer doesn't come back.

The California health care plan cannot wait because all over California--indeed all over this country--there are men and women and even children who like Susan, who cannot wait for health care reform.

California has started building a new road to reform, one I believe history will judge as the tipping point in the long sought dream of an America that offers every person who works the secure, affordable and quality health care for themselves and their families.

May we have the wisdom and courage to make that dream come true!

-Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union

With 1.9 million members, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. Focused on uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they provide, SEIU is the largest health care union, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care; the largest property services union, including building cleaning and security; and the second largest public employee union.

Comments

[littlepeople]

The only thing that will ultimately work is a universal, single-payer, not for profit health care system. Kucinich has proposed such a plan, but I don't care who delivers it. What the hell do we need the insurance companies for? Get rid of the middleman!!!!!

[Dantheman99]

We meed a single-payer, universal model. However, this is an improvement over what we have now.

I will vote for all the tax increases to pay for it.

The compromise reached in California is far from perfect, but it is miles ahead of Obama's non-universal plan which leaves millions, if not tens of millions behind.

[NorCalNative]

Mr. Stern, any solution that maintains the services of PARASITES such as the private insurance industry is already doomed to failure. Allowing profit where compassion is the goal,is SICK. There are plenty of money-making schemes available to investors, so its time to put these greedy assholes out of a job.

Let me repeat: It's time to get the GREEDY ASSHOLES new jobs. Private industry IS the PROBLEM! Bean counters have NO freaking business being any where near patients. If this country is TOO STUPID to realize that the Nation's people are more important than profits, we get what we deserve.

[GordonDR]

Mandated private insurance has been tried over and over, starting with Nixon in 1971, and has never worked. For a survey of the failures, see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/opinion/15woolhandler.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The key conclusions:
"The “mandate model” for reform rests on impeccable political logic: avoid challenging insurance firms’ stranglehold on health care. But it is economic nonsense. The reliance on private insurers makes universal coverage unaffordable."
and
"In 1971, New Brunswick became the last Canadian province to institute that nation’s single-payer plan. Back then, the relative merits of single-payer versus Nixon’s mandate were debatable. Almost four decades later, the debate should be over. How sad that the leading Democrats are still kicking around Nixon’s discredited ideas for health reform."

[drricklippin]

Haven't seen details yet but I bet the "elephant standing in the middle of the healthcare reform room" has NOT been adequately addressed. That is HEALTH CARE COST CONTAINMENT!

The only way out of this mess is individual (health behaviors) and institutio­nal(public health)prevention.

Prevention, however, must be implemented incrementally and always with compassion.

Also, Andy Stern, disease care jobs must morph into health care and prevention jobs - a challenge for SEIU.

Dr. Rick Lippin
http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com

[NoPCZone]

Mr Stern, listen to me.

Single-Payer. One nation instead of 50 fiefdoms.

Not-for-profit. Service not profit is the goal.

Universal. No opting out. One standard of care for everyone.

Not insurance. No deductible, premium or co-pay.

Anything else is unacceptable.

BTW- I contacted your group over 18 months ago and never got so much as an e-mail reply. Do workers in Red State America not count?

[ramal]

Forcing people to buy "private" health insurance will only worsen the problem and drive more people into bankruptcy. All those who are currently purchasing their own health insurance and not part of a group plan should simply STOP and start showing up at emergency rooms when they need treatment. Better yet, start showing up at your Congressmen or Senator's offices demanding the same healthcare plan they receive. The only way the whole rotten system is going to come down is for people to overload it to the point of breaking down completely and then take to the streets.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I'm firmly convinced that healthscare is a racket, a jobs program like you wouldn't believe
and the Big Dogs, the drug companies, rake it
in hour by hour. It's been overdriven, your
capacity to be seen by a doctor is now contingent on how much money is in your pocket.
SOMEbody's driving a nice car, there.

[ElTiante]

Not sure why the quote by Dr. Himmelstein and Dr. Woolhandler didn't get posted. Here it is again:
"244,000 of Massachusetts uninsured get zero assistance--just a stiff fine if they don't buy coverage. A couple in their late 50s faces a minimum premium of $8,638 annually, for a policy with no drug coverage at all and a $2,000 deductible per person before insurance even kicks in. Such skimpy yet costly coverage is, in many cases, worse than no coverage at all. Illness will still bring crippling medical bills--but the $8,638 annual premium will empty their bank accounts even before the bills start arriving. Little wonder that barely 2 percent of those required to buy such coverage have thus far signed up."

I've posted these details on the Massachusetts plan because Mr. Stern touts it as a fine model for the California plan. Also note that fines for noncompliance in Massachusets is up to 50% of the cost of a healthcare plan, an average $2000 fine for individuals. Cost of noncompliance for employers is $295 per employee. So, yes, the Chamber of Commerce and other biz orgs love this plan, too.

The California Nurses Association strongly opposes Mr. Stern on this issue. Could HuffPost please ask someone from that great organization to post a rebuttal column?

[cmikes]

This is perhaps the worst possible plan and will do perhaps the worst possible damage to the push for actual health care reform. Simply put, it requires citizens to buy health care insurance from a broken, dysfunctional industry, but it does not require the insurers to actually deliver health care. This is simply another privatization scheme that extracts money from the bottom side of the economy.

[Overd0g]

So only hard working American families will benefit? I find that rather hard to believe.

[HollywoodBill]

This is by no means a done deal and once the details are publicized, it is very doubtful that this is going to happen.

Money. California is already facing an emergency $14 billion shortfall due to the slump, or some would say collapse, of real estate sales. This new program is estimated to cost $14 billion in addition to the already projection shortfall of the same amount. This leads to the obvious question of how is this new program going to be financed.

More Money. By and large Californians do not vote for new taxes. Bonds maybe, taxes never. Nunez and Arnold are basing the financing of these new programs on Voter Approval of new cigarette taxes, hospital taxes and payroll taxes. Details to be released, but as a general rule, once things get too complex, the voters reject them. Surprisingly California voters rejected a higher cigarette tax in 06. There is no reason to think that it will pass in 08.

Citizenship status. If this medical care is extended to non citizens, it will open a huge Pandora's box. At that point, I'd be very surprised whether this could pass.

Small businesses, insurance companies and tobacco companies are automatically going to be against this. They will probably pool their resources and run joint campaigns to defeat this.

If times were better, this might have a chance. Arnold is calling a special session next month to deal with the budget shortfall already. Perhaps not the best time to announce such a huge new program.

[ElTiante]

The Massachusetts plan was put into play with the backing of Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a Republican governor. If that isn't enough evidence to convince you it is a sham, search the internet for the writing of Drs. Stefanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, primary care doctors at Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts. Here's a quote from an article they wrote at counterpunch.org on September 21, 2007:

[laurenc]

Why does the California Labor Federation NOT support this plan?? There's a real story here, folks, and it's not pretty. Apparently Stern sold out the rest of the labor movement to give us a fake privatized plan. Let's hear from that side before we jump into this fake celebration that only strengthens the anti-worker Governor. Check www.calitics.com.

[OkieMon]

Any system other than a direct participation in medicare for those who can pay and medicaid for those who can't is doomed to failure.