Posted on 02/10/2005 7:46:33 AM PST by MedNole
LA JOLLA ---- Two state assemblymen told health officials in La Jolla on Tuesday that they plan to propose a sweeping health-care reform package in Sacramento on Thursday that would likely require all Californians to have health insurance.
State Assemblymen Joe Nation, D-Marin, and Dr. Keith Richman, R-Chatsworth, told health officials who gathered at UC San Diego to discuss the future of health care that they had been working on the comprehensive reform package that would "shake up the status quo," for more than a year.
Health-care officials, meanwhile, representing insurers, hospitals, doctors, county health services, academics and think-tank groups said California's, and the nation's, health-care system was broken and costs are spiraling out of control ---- in part because too many people don't have health insurance.
Officials said people without health insurance, or not enough health insurance, can't pay for their medical coverage.
That, they said, forces insurers, hospitals and doctors to try to make up shortfalls by passing the costs on to patients who have health insurance ---- an action that contributes to a continuing upward spiral in the cost of health care for everyone.
Neither assemblyman would go into the details of exactly what their "multi-bill" plan would entail.
But they strongly hinted that it would, if passed, require all Californians to have health-insurance coverage ----- just like car insurance.
"The system is crumbling," Richman said. "It's 6.4 million people (in California) who are currently not in the system who are not contributing to the financial stability of our entire health-care system."
Officials said that health-care costs in California have risen to $150 billion, and that the annual health-care costs for a family of four is roughly $10,000.
Richman and health experts on the panel of experts at Tuesday's seminar hosted by the Rand Corp. and the Communications Institute said there were multiple reasons why health-care costs continue to rapidly increase.
Those reasons include:
State and federal health insurance for the poor ---- Medi-Cal and Medicare ---- are too complicated, need to be simplified and "streamlined," and do not pay doctors and hospitals enough to cover medical service.
The cost of prescription drugs, pushed by incessant television marketing, continues to rise at double-digit percentages each year.
That patients over-use expensive drugs ---- rather than generics ---- and medical treatments, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging and surgical procedures such as "stomach stapling," that they do not necessarily need.
That a significant portion of California's, and the nation's, population is getting older, meaning they need and use health-care services more often.
That expensive technological advancements such as hip, knee and other joint replacements continue to be used more and more.
In addition, Dana Goldman, a senior economist with the Rand Corp., and others said people are living longer than ever before, giving them a chance to be stricken with aging illnesses such as heart and lung disease that are often expensive to treat.
Michael Murphy, president and chief executive officer of Sharp Healthcare, said, "The system isn't working ... only one-third of hospitals in the state are making money. There have been eight hospital closures in the state of California in the last six months."
Surprisingly, Goldman said, many people who do not have health insurance are not poor.
He said recent studies show that more than one-third of the population who are uninsured have income levels that are twice the federal poverty level.
Those same studies showed that 55 percent of those who are uninsured are young ---- between the ages of 18 and 34.
San Diego's Dr. Bob Hertzka, president of the California Medical Association, said the association believes that a partial solution is for the government to mandate "individual health insurance coverage" ---- meaning that everyone in the state would be required to pay for health insurance.
Goldman said that could possibly be just for "catastrophic coverage," to start out with, just to prevent hospitals from having to eat the cost of expensive treatment for uninsured people who suffer traumatic car wrecks or serious illnesses.
Richman, meanwhile, said he agreed with all the observations at Tuesday's seminar. He said the legislative package he and Nation plan to unveil Thursday would be far-reaching and would not "just be talking about a mandate for universal coverage."
"When I started in the Legislature in 2000-2001, health care was a crisis," Richman said. "And it's only gotten worse. I really believe that this is the opportunity to make some real changes in our health-care system. We're going to roll out something on Thursday ... I think it will shake up the system."
When are they going to get rid of the illegal immigrants sucking up all the health costs?
All right, what did I miss here? Someone takes something he then doesn't pay for? In the case of a citizen deduct it from his pay. In the case of illegals stop them on the way in to this country.
No on will ever force me to "buy" health insurance.
You seriously believe your premiums would go down? HA !
Not really. If you live in a high crime area, your car insurance is higher because your car is more likely to be stolen (not your fault). If you live in an are where there are more bad drivers (not your fault) your rates go up.
How would I be paying for his treatment? I don't want universal health care...I DESPISE universal health care. These are INDEMNITY policies, that should never be confused with universal health care.
Everyone can afford these policies, and the government wouldn't even sell them. The vast majority of the uninsured can be described as "the working poor." If we require the working poor to pay for a minimal level of indemnity coverage, then they stop becoming a burden on the rest of us.
And we think for two seconjds that insurance rates will go down when its mandatory..
How can too many people NOT HAVING insurance drive costs up? Too many people not having insurance would drive costs DOWN!
Medical costs are spiraling BECAUSE of medical insurance, not for lack of it. Back when people had to pay out of their own pockets, the costs were more reasonable. But now that it's the "insurance company" that pays, not the patient, why not charge $100,000 for an operation? Or $1,000 a night stay in the hospital? Or $100 a pill?
People would not tolerate such high prices without the dynamic of people thinking that "who cares if it's so expensive, the insurance company will pay for it."
I understand there are some arguable benefits from overpricing in terms of better health care. But mandating health insurance will NOT lower medical costs... It will RAISE them. And insurance rates will subsequently increase, as well.
Dear Lord, are you slow. When the poor can't pay, the State will subsidize their policies, just as they do now with car insurance.
This is a ploy to introduce government health care. They know that the people who can't afford health insurance won't be able to comply with the law so the next step will be to introduce government health coverage to let people comply with the law. Viola! Government health coverage sneaked in the back door. This is a diasterous idea, IMO. I will resist it.
Read the article. It lays the blame of increasing health care costs on everything except illegal aliens and trial lawyers.
The article does rightfully blame an ageing population, more high tech procedures and young healthy people opting out of a system that is not worth their money.
Indemnity policies are not offer typical health care coverage. They are very inexpensive, and only offer catastrophic coverage. Anyone with a job can afford one.
No, they won't stop people on the street to look at their health insurance cards. They should require all employees to show proof to their employers. If someone shows up in an ER without insurance, they should be treated, but they should also be followed up on to make sure they show proof of some minimal level of health care insurance.
Maybe we could get the $5,000 deductible out of their "earned income tax". Just consficate it like our taxes are consficated out of our paychecks.
Insurance is where everyone pays into a pool and benefits are paid out according to "need". It is the very embodiment of Karl Marx.
Easy now. Insurance may be socialism, but it is private property, voluntary, socialism. It is a free society answer to a communal need without the heavy hand of government. Marx should have been so smart.
The problem with health insurance is that health care is now considered a necessity, like electricity, water, roads, sewers, etc. The problem is how to pay for them without someone gaming the system privately for huge profits, doctors, insurance companies, lawyers, or lowering the quality by too much government interference.
I don't know why mexico dosn't become the 51st state. They wander into this part of the country freely anyways, and burden the system. May as well make them 'merkins and give them social security cards so we can at least track them.
Hopefully, you realize that what is really inflating health care costs are unnecessary testing to avoid lawsuits and treatment for chronic, not acute illnesses. The unpaid ER bills are not the main problem. Most doctors pay malpractice insurance of at least 30 K per year and sometimes over 200 K per year.
Don't forget to mention how government loving Socialistas envy, resent and despise the role the insurers have developed in "socialized risk" and press desperately to usurp any such role by private sector entities with GovernMental domination!!!
So this little deal here is another example to them getting government to grab off more control of the insurance industry in the creeping grand design of ultimate Socialism!!!
Plus, CA also passed a law that mandated all landfills be closed and the "waste-stream" be dried up in the decade of the 90's, too! Kinda like writing a law mandating the sun set in the east no later than 2015!!! Phhhhht! (no, I haven't read the thread, yet)
[I]Dear Lord, are you slow. When the poor can't pay, the State will subsidize their policies, just as they do now with car insurance.[/I]
I never suggested that the state subsidize these really, really inexpensive policies. Please, show me where I even implied this.
BINGO!
Of course the illegals will be allowed to opt out of this and continue their free ride like always.
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