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Senator Proposes Government-run State Health Plan
Program Would Cover Everyone in California
by Timm Herdt,

Saying that the state's hit-or-miss system of providing health care "can't be fixed by half-measures," Sen. Sheila Kuehl has proposed a single, government-run health plan that would cover every man, woman and child in California.

It coud be done, she said, without spending a dollar more on health care. "We don't have to spend more money," said Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. " We simply have to cut administrative costs and spend our money differently. If we do, wecan cover every Californian."

Kuehl's vision is to provide comprehensive medical, dental, vision and mental health care, including prescription drug coverage. Private health insurance would be eliminated, and the state-run program would be paid for through a tax on wages of about three percent and a tax on business payrolls of about six percent.

Federal and state tax money that now goes to Medicare and MediCal would instead be put into the single state fund.

Since no one would be paying private health insurance premiums, co-payments for medical services or insurance deductibles, Kuehl said, most companies and individuals would end up paying about the same or less for health insurance as they now do. There would be enough left over in the state fund, she said, to also cover the estimated 7.3 million Californians who are now uninsured.

Kuehl's proposal is the most radical of three universal-health measures that have been put forth in the legislature this year. The others would maintain the existing system in which most people get private health insurance - through their employers, Medicare coverage for retirees and MediCal for the poor.

The idea of a government-run insurance program is vigorously opposed by the health insurance industry and has traditionally been opposed by most health care providers and business groups. "I think its chances of becoming law are very near to zero," said William Wehrle, a lobbyist for the California Association of Health Plans. "I don't think there's anywhere near a consensus to take such a radical step."

Wehrle called the argument that universal health care could be provided simply by eliminating administrative costs "a golden oldie" that has not proven to be the case in Canada and Western European countries in which single payer systems have been implemented.

"The problem is that there is always a temptation to over-promise," Wehrle said. "If you take away all cost-sharing, then every one of us wants for ourselves and our loved ones the most expensive drugs and the most expensive treatments...Everybody wants something when it's free."

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge, the only physician in the legislature, said that while he supports universal health insurance he is opposed to a single payer system.

(Downloaded from the internet, this article appeared in the Ventura County Star, February 25, 2003)

• Women outnumber men in every age group over 25.
• Women's life expectancy is now at a record 79.5 years.
• In the 1990s the proportion of Hispanic women in the female population grew from 8.6% to 11.6% and Asian Pacific Islander women increased from 2.8% to 3.9%.
• More than 56% of women 16 and older are employed.
• Women earn less than 75 cents for every $1 men earn.
• More than 13% of women lack health insurance coverage.
• More than 25% of women aged 18-24 have no insurance.
• More than 11% live below the federal poverty level.
• Single women with young children or who are elderly are most likely to live in poverty.
• Black and Hispanic women of all ages have particularly high poverty rates.
• Women are more likely than men to seek preventive care.
• In 1996, 24% of women's ambulatory care visits were for mammograms, Pap smears and immunizations.
• Adolescent girls report smoking cigarettes at slightly higher rates than boys (14.1%compared to 12.8%.)
• Slightly more than 20% of adult females smoke.
• Depression significantly affects women. Women are more likely than men to be hospitalized for depression.
• More than a quarter of women aged 18-25 report binge drinking in the past month, and 7.4% drink heavily.
• Misuse of all drugs declines significantly among women after age 25.
• Women report a higher rate of chronic conditions and have higher rates of disability than men.
• More women are seeking prenatal care in the first trimester and both infant and maternal mortality are decreasing.
• Black women have four times higher risk for pregnancy-related death than white women.
• Women die at lower rates than men of heart disease, cancer and stroke, but heart disease remains the number one killer of women.
• More women are diagnosed with breast cancer than any other type of cancer, but lung cancer kills more women.
• 67,300 women died of lung and bronchus cancers compared to 40,200 deaths from breast cancer in 2001.
• Black women have the highest lung cancer death rates, and white women have the highest breast cancer rates.
• Women are disproportionately affected by diabetes, asthma, and osteoporosis.
• HIV/AIDS is coming to the forefront of concerns about women's health. In 2000 a total of 130,104 cases of AIDS was reported in adolescent and adult females in the U.S. and is most prevalent among women aged 25-44 and among Black women.
• A national survey on violence in 1995-96 found that more than half of women reported being physically assaulted in their lifetime.
  American Indian women were more likely to report being raped.
• More women aged 65 and older are living in the community, either independently or with relatives. Women bear about 20% of health care costs, mostly on inpatient and home health care costs.

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