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HOME PAGEABOUT VOTE HEALTHCONTACT VHRESOURCES & REPRESENTATIVESINDEX PAGE
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Newsletter: May, 2007
(archive)
Sacramento Update The groundswell of support for SB 840 continues to build. The bill was passed by the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday April 18. Busloads of supporters filled the hearing room and flooded the halls of the capitol. The bill moves next step to the Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 1014, the companion financing bill for SB 840, also passed out of the Health Committee and was referred to Revenue and Taxation; it passed that committee on April 25 but must be heard again when all of specific tax rates have been included in the bill. "Leadership bills" also move forward. The bills sponsored by the two legislative leaders, SB 48 from Senate President pro Tempore Don Perata, and AB 8 from Assembly Speaker Nunez, both passed out of their respective health committees on April 24 and 25. The two bills include a number of common elements, evidence of the commitment expressed by the two leaders to develop a unified bill. Both propose to expand health coverage substantially through an expansion of the existing public and private insurance system. Medi-Cal and Healthy Families would be expanded to cover all children, regardless of immigration status, up to 300% of the federal poverty line; their parents would also be eligible for coverage with varying combinations of subsidies and sliding scale contributions. Private employers would be required to "play or pay"-to spend a specific percentage of payroll on employee health care expenditures or to pay into a public purchasing pool that would make insurance coverage available to employees. Both also propose some significant insurance reforms. One key difference between the two bills concerns the so-called "individual mandate." Nunez would require employees offered insurance by their employers to "take up" the insurance; Perata would require all tax filers to show proof of health insurance or be denied the personal tax exemption. Both bills are expected to undergo additional changes. Within the parameters of these bills, Vote Health's key concerns focus on four issues which must be specified in the two bills: a definition of "affordability" which limits the individual's contribution to health care costs (e.g. 4% of income); a definition of the employer contribution which ensures a meaningful package of benefits (e.g. 8% of payroll); and a definition of the benefit package, including comprehensive benefits and prescription drugs, and meets the definition of affordability. And we are strongly opposed to an individual mandate. Of course we are concerned about the lack of cost containment in these bills; to limit costs, and to provide genuinely universal coverage, SB 840 remains the only truly effective legislation.
Small Business Surveyed About Health Benefits The National Small Business Administration recently surveyed small and mid-sized businesses on a number of issues, including health benefits. Only 41% of such firms now offer health benefits to their workers, Down from 67% in 1995. More than one third have taken cost-cutting measures, such as increasing employee contributions and changing to policies with higher deductibles. While businesses express strong support for health care reform, they strongly reject a government mandate to provide benefits to their own employees. Presented with an alternative that does not rely so heavily on business, they would prefer a "federally funded, government administered health care system financed through higher taxes." When questioned about their three biggest challenges, 39% of the businesses surveyed responded that the cost of health benefits was second only to "economic uncertainty" (42%). When asked what they wanted the presidential campaigns to address, the tax burden and health care costs top the list.
Special Event:
Women's Health Summit: Universal Health Care is a Women's Issue.
Key speakers include Sara Rogers, consultant to Senator Sheila Kuehl, and Bree Johnston, former president of CAPA.
For more information contact UCSF Women's Health Resource Center at
Upcoming East Bay Events
For the statewide campaign on SB 840
We need your help in planning and carrying out these events: contact information for each event has been provided below.
Castro Valley
Alameda
San Leandro
Berkeley
Hayward
Fremont
Oakland
For more information, contact Kay Eisenhower:
Newsletter committee:
Vote Health is the Alameda County associate of Health Care for All - CA. Our priorities include support of single payer health care/SB 840, currently through the OneCareNow/365 city campaign, as well as advocating for access to quality health care services locally for the indigent and uninsured. |
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