Health Care: California's Moment and a National Movement

Posted by Dennis Rivera, AlterNet at 2:32 PM on December 18, 2007.

With President Bush's SCHIP veto setting a grim tone for the end of 2007, there are millions of families desperate for a sign that America is making progress on the battle for healthcare reform. (Anyone who doesn't think it's a battle, please recall what this administration did to Graeme Frost and his family after they spoke up for expanded funding for SCHIP. Then send an enormous lump of coal directly to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.)

The healthcare legislation that the California Assembly passed yesterday is an undeniable sign that the potential for real healthcare reform is alive and well in a state with the greatest number of uninsured in the nation and every complicating reason to simply throw up their hands in the face of this challenge: a looming state budget crisis; housing costs that lead the nation; struggling healthcare providers; an ever-widening gap between the rich and working families. No disrespect to California, but the list of challenges is long. And long before this historic vote, many parties could've thrown in the towel. But they didn't.

That California has fashioned a real roadmap for providing more secure, affordable healthcare coverage is a credit to Governor Schwarzenegger and the California legislature, and to working families and healthcare leaders who are so saddened and frustrated by our healthcare system that they seized this moment and would not let go. Even if California's plan isn't perfect - and many of these same folks would say that it's not -it does focus on improving the health of every Californian, improving the quality of California's healthcare system, and addressing some of the root causes of escalating healthcare costs.

Here's what AB x1 1, the Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act, would do:

• Requires all Californians to enroll in a healthcare plan by July, 2010, exempting those who would incur "undue hardship."
• Creates a state-run purchasing pool to help people obtain affordable policies.
• Expands Healthy Families (California's already-successful use of SCHIP!) coverage to children whose parents earn up to three times the federal poverty level, $51,510 for a family of three.
• Helps families pay for their coverage - families earning up to 2 1/2 times the poverty level, or $42,925 for a family of three, would receive subsidies; and for those earning up to four times the poverty level, or $68,680 for a family of three, would get tax credits if their share of premiums for an average-priced policy exceeds 5.5% of their incomes.
• Prevents insurance companies from cherry-picking patients by making it illegal to refuse customers because of past ailments, age or any other factor.
• Require insurers to spend at least 85% of their collected premiums on health benefits.
• Encourages healthy lifestyles, responsible management of chronic conditions, and preventative medicine through obesity prevention, diabetes treatment, and other programs.
• Fosters greater efficiency by encouraging the use of electronic records to keep patients' histories and deliver drug prescriptions to pharmacies.

And just as important as what the bill does, this process to enact it keeps everyone engaged in the process to continue to shape its success, starting with California voters at the ballot in November of '08, and including elected officials, employers, individuals, and healthcare providers.

If you talked to some of the nurses and healthcare workers who work on the front lines of the California healthcare system, they would tell you that healthcare reform doesn't belong to a political party, or an age, or an income level, but it surely does have a moment in time. And despite what the Bush administration, think tanks, conservatives, economists or healthcare scrooges might say, there's no doubt in their minds: that moment starts now and it starts with California.

Tagged as: healthcare, california

Dennis Rivera is the Chair of SEIU Healthcare. SEIU Healthcare unites over 1 million nurses and healthcare workers in the hospital, nursing home, homecare industries in a national union dedicated to ensuring the highest quality of care for every patient, fixing our broken healthcare system, and improving the lives of healthcare workers, their families, and their communities.