Phone tax likely to make it to November ballot
By: ERIN WALSH - Staff Writer
Last modified Monday, March 22, 2004 10:26 PM PST
California voters should probably expect to see a new phone tax proposal to help pay for emergency rooms on the ballot this fall.
As of last week, supporters had collected 683,000 signatures ---- more than the 598,105 needed to put the measure on the ballot in November.
The Coalition to Preserve Emergency Care continues to collect signatures "to make sure we have enough valid ones to get this before the voters," said spokeswoman Kelly Hayes-Raitt.
If approved, the tax initiative would hike Californians' phone bills by 3 percent, raising about $550 million for emergency room costs, including doctors, equipment and care for the uninsured.
Supporters, including statewide doctor and hospital associations, say the tax is necessary to keep cash-strapped emergency rooms open.
Opponents say hospitals don't need more tax money, and that it's unfair to tax phone users for services almost entirely unrelated to telephones.
A very small fraction of the tax ---- 0.75 percent of revenues from the surcharge ---- will be designated for upgrading the state's 9-1-1 emergency phone system.
Residential phone lines could be taxed up to 50 cents each under the measure. Cellular phones and business lines would have no such cap.
The coalition says the tax is necessary to keep emergency rooms from closing their doors during rough financial times. Twenty-six emergency rooms have closed in California in the last five years, according to the coalition, primarily because of money problems.
"If you get in a car accident, you want to know that there's an emergency room open nearby to fix you up," Hayes-Raitt said. "Right now, you can't be sure that will be the case."
Opponents, including the California Taxpayers Association, said the measure would unfairly suck millions from phone customers ---- especially businesses and cell phone users ---- to pay for a health care system that needs reform, not more money.
"We agree that the health care system is in dire straits, but taxing phone users isn't the answer," said Larry McCarthy, president of the taxpayer association. "The answer is to do a better job with the resources we have."
Most of the revenue from the proposed phone tax ---- 60 percent ---- would be set aside for emergency room use, including doctors, nurses and equipment. Thirty percent would be earmarked to pay emergency doctors who treat uninsured patients. Five percent would go to community clinics that provide emergency care. About 4 percent would go toward paramedic and firefighter training, and less than 1 percent would be set aside for improvements to the 9-1-1 emergency phone system.
Proponents say the tax is necessary to make sure emergency services are available all over the state, where hospitals have been struggling to meet rising costs and to deal with cuts in government-funded health insurance.
Local hospital executives, who are pushing for the measure, said last month that hospitals needed the tax in order for hospital care to survive as North County knows it.
Late last year, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas stopped taking low-income patients who use government insurance unless they are in emergency situations. Other local hospitals said they are having trouble keeping their emergency rooms staffed with enough nurses to meet strict new staffing laws.
Coalition spokeswoman Hayes-Raitt said taxing phone use is the best way to evenly divide the cost of emergency health care between residents of the state.
"Anybody who uses the phone could end up in the emergency room," she said.
But taxing phone users to bail hospitals out of their money problems is unfair, McCarthy said, especially because very little revenue from the tax will go toward the emergency phone system.
"The doctors and hospitals are simply looking for a convenient target to raise taxes and have more of the cost health care be borne by taxpayers," he said. "We think it's a scare tactic, and we don't think California voters are going to buy it."
Contact staff writer Erin Walsh at (760) 739-6644 or ewalsh@nctimes.com
This is insane. Send the illegals home! Problem solved!