CA: LEGISLATIVE ALERT: SB840 -- socialized Medicine

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE ALERT
RE: SB 840 – Socialized Medicine
Author: Senator Sheila Kuehl
Position: Strongly OPPOSE
Status: In California State Senate

Summary of Concerns:

SB 840 is an aggressive plan to bring socialized medicine into California by replacing private health insurance with a mandatory state-run program for every California resident. SB 840 will: 1) force every California resident above poverty level to pay a state insurance premium (hidden tax); 2) destroy the current system of choices of health care coverage; 3) drive up the cost of health care coverage; 4) reduce the quality of health care available; 5) reduce the availability of health care, forcing some families to go out of state to obtain health care for their family members; 6) create a new huge government bureaucracy that will make life and death medical decisions; and 7) place all final health care decisions in the hands of a single government board and its commissioner.

A. Action:
1. Call your State Senator in Sacramento now and ask them to "Please vote No on SB 840."

* SB 840 would create the "California Health Insurance System" to be administered by an autonomous agency, the "California Health Insurance Agency," under the direction of the "Health Insurance Commissioner" who would be elected for terms of eight years.

* SB 840 would establish the "California Health Insurance Agency" as the sole primary provider of health insurance coverage for all California residents.

* SB 840 would prohibit all current health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies from being sold in California because they would duplicate services provided through the "California Health Insurance Agency." Individual health care service plans or insurance companies would only be able to sell medical or health services in California that the "California Health Insurance Agency" does not provide.

1. Health care is primarily the responsibility of families and individuals, not of the government.

2. Health insurance and health care plans have operated as private for-profit or non-profit enterprises in a competitive free market. These should not be controlled or stopped from operating.

3. SB 840 effectively creates a form of taxation in the form of insurance premiums that are to be paid to the state. The state would control how that money is redistributed to pay for medical services for anyone who resides in the state.

4. SB 840 will destroy the current level of choices for health care coverage available to Californians as the "California Health Insurance Agency" dictates what health care the state will provide.

5. SB 840 interferes with the right of individuals to fully manage their own medical decisions. For instance, under SB 840 individuals can only obtain services approved by the state, and only by providers approved by the state. Morally objectionable services, such as abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, or mandatory regular psychiatric exams for everyone could be paid for. In addition, some services, such as those that help the disabled, the aged, or infants with congenital conditions could be rationed or eliminated.

6. SB 840 could result in individuals needing to purchase additional coverage for care beyond what the state's plan would provide. This would require the individual to pay into the state's plan and additionally into a private plan. Most people would not be able to afford to pay for additional plans and would be stuck with only the state's coverage.

7. Under SB 840, premiums for a state plan are very likely to be significantly higher than premiums for existing private plans, which are of a higher quality and offer more choices. Everyone above poverty level will be subsidizing the hundreds of thousands of low- or non-income individuals who will not be paying for their coverage.

8. SB 840 would allow this new state agency to issue regulations concerning your medical care without any public input or independent review by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). Current law requires the opportunity for public comment and for OAL review of government generated regulations.

Reasons to support SB 840:
1. Contrary to what another poster posted SB 840 will not encourage companies to move out of California. Providing health insurance for employees is one of the biggest costs that companies face today. SB 840 will actually save them money by providing employees health insurance at a lower cost, and it will eliminate the middle man, the insurance companies. Support the businesses and citizens of California by supporting this bill.

2. SB 840 provides for universal coverage and comprehensive benefits while making very significant state savings in health care spending. In the short run, it adds no new spending, and in the long run it controls the growth in health care spending.

3. SB 840 provides for reliable coverage and security for every California resident. Eligibility is based on residency, not employment or income. No one will ever lose coverage because of unaffordable insurance premiums, changing or losing a job, going to or graduating from college, or pre-existing conditions.

4. SB 840 provides for affordable health care. Health benefits will be paid for by federal, state and county monies currently being spent on the health care system and affordable insurance premiums that replace all premiums, deductibles, out-of pocket payments, and co-payments now paid by employers and consumers.

5. System savings resulting from use of the state's purchasing power to buy pharmaceuticals and medical equipment at discounted rates, administrative simplification, and making primary care and preventive care available for everyone will dramatically increase the funds that can be spent on providing universal coverage. According to the Lewin Group study, even after care is made available to California's uninsured and underinsured, the net state savings will be about $8 billion in the first year.

6. SB 840 provides for efficient delivery of health care. Waste will be eliminated by consolidating the functions of many insurance companies into one comprehensive insurance plan saving the state and consumers billions of dollars each year. A recent Boston University study shows half of every dollar spent on health care is squandered on clinical and administrative waste, insurance company profits and over-priced pharmaceuticals. The Lewin Group report estimates that California will save more than $20 billion in reduced administrative costs in the first year alone.

7. SB 840 provides for high quality health care. Consumers will have total freedom to choose their personal primary care provider. Health care providers and facilities will receive fair reimbursement for all covered services they provide.

8. SB 840 provides for generous health care benefits based on all care prescribed by a health care provider that meets accepted standards of care and practice. The benefit package is broader than that of many current health plans and includes hospital, medical, surgical, and mental health; dental and vision care; prescription drugs and medical equipment; diagnostic testing; emergency care; health education and translation services; hospice care; and more.

9. SB 840 will stabilize the growth in health care spending by linking spending increases to growth in state gross domestic product and population, employment rates, and other relevant demographic indicators. It includes cost controls and an emphasis on preventative and primary care.

Giving working class people the right to medical care is not a bad thing.

There is NO SUCH THING as a "right to healthcare", and giving healthcare to people who can't afford it is an entirely different thing than giving medical insurance coverage to people that can't afford it. Providing healthcare to the poor is humanitarian work undertaken by numerous PRIVATE-SECTOR organizations throughout the world as a voluntary, donation-supported ministry of compassion. How many of these organizations do YOU give money to?

Medical insurance, on the other hand, is a retail product, like cable television, or a gym membership. In the world of grown-ups, retail products you can't afford to buy don't come home with you. If you can't handle the payments on that Escalade, you aren't going to be driving it home. If you can't pay first, last, and deposit on that apartment, you aren't moving in anytime soon.

"But," you say, "we work hard." Big deal! We all work hard. That isn't the standard by which eligibility for insurance gets judged. The standard is, "Can YOU pay for it?" If the answer's "No", it's not the government's responsibility to cut you a check to take up the slack.

Should I or my family not get adequate health care because I chose a profession that does not pay as much as others?

Yes. You and your family should NOT get adequate medical insurance until YOU choose to do something different, or something more, so that you then have the money needed to PAY for it. Until then, you'll do without.

Should my kids go with out dental care because I do construction and am not some kind of lawyer?

No. They should go without dental insurance because YOU -- perhaps selfishly, but maybe not -- choose to work in a profession that doesn't pay you enough to buy it for them.

Whats wrong with sharing the burden of health care so all Californians can be well?

What's wrong with sharing the burden of car payments so that everyone can drive a new 325i? What's wrong with THAT? What's wrong with "sharing the burden" of house payments so everyone can live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath tract home? The same thing that's wrong with that is what's wrong with "sharing the burden" of medical insurance premiums.

Look, I'm sorry you've sold off your self-respect somewhere along the line; that's a real shame, but you can't legitimately get something for nothing by asking government to rip me off so they can buy it for you. That's what you're advocating, here, whether you've thought it through that far or not. THAT'S what it comes down to: government-sanctioned robbery. They take a whole wad of everyone's money, spread it in a thin layer over several thousand bureaucrats who buy new SLK430's with it, then they compensate medical staff for the mediocre care that they can barely afford to provide with what's left. At that point, the care you'd be getting almost isn't worth having.

So, let me get at least ONE thing straight here: this isn't Burger King; you CAN'T have it YOUR way. AND furthermore, even at Burger King, you can't have it YOUR way unless you've got the money in your pocket to pay for it. No money; no burger. Boo-frickin'-hoo.

If you didn't do enough studying in school to get the kind of job that pays enough for you to be able to afford medical insurance for your family -- sorry, you don't get any. Shop alternatives to standard insurance; co-op plans are far less and there are many. I ran with no insurance for a few years because I worked out of a job shop that didn't provide any benefits. Then I got bare-bones "catastrophic" insurance for awhile; low monthly premiums and a big deductible. I did what I could afford, but I never, never, never, never, never sold my self-respect downriver by implying -- much less EXPECTING -- that anyone else ought to be carrying my water for me.

If I couldn't afford it, I didn't get it.

But it isn't a legitimate function of government to take up my slack, or yours, or anyone else's and pay to get stuff for folks who can't pay for it themselves. That's an inexcusable abuse of money entrusted to the governement by the taxpayers for legitimate government functions.

A healthy society is a more productive society.

A society of individuals that pay less in taxes to their government can AFFORD BETTER HEALTHCARE on their own, AND that society's productivity b!+chsmacks the crap out of your hashish-induced dreamworld.

i am sure that will some how "drip down" to all the fat cat millionaires that oppose universal health care in the first place.

LOL!! Yeah, right. Fresh in from the planet Zarquon, eh? Wake up and smell the burning coffee! All but a paltry busload of your mythical "fat cat millionaires" are, in REALITY, everyday working-class stiffs trying as hard as you are to keep as much after-too-much-taxation income in their pockets as they can SO THEY CAN MAYBE PAY THEIR INSURANCE PREMIUMS. They're your neighbors; people you work with; the people you stand in line with at the grocery store; the guy driving next to you on the freeway in commute traffic. Who opposes universal healthcare? "We, The People," oppose it. THAT'S WHO!

Now, don't ask anymore stupid questions; I'm gettin' cantankerous.

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