First 2008 Hearing Wednesday on Sen. Kuehl's SB 840

Single-Payer Reform Only Effective Cure for State's Healthcare Crisis, Say RNs

Single-payer reform is the only effective approach to reining in insurance industry abuses and solving the state and national healthcare crisis, California registered nurses will testify Wednesday in the first state legislative hearing this year on Sen. Sheila Kuehl's single-payer bill, SB 840.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear SB 840 Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. in Room 4202 in the state Capitol.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is the principal sponsor of the bill, which passed the state Senate last year. Also speaking in support will be a broad coalition of California labor, community, and healthcare advocacy groups, including the California School Employees Association, League of Women Voters, and Health Care for All-California.

"Poll after poll shows an overwhelming public yearning for comprehensive healthcare reform with a government guarantee of healthcare for all," said Malinda Markowitz, RN, a CNA/NNOC co-president.

Further, the two central components of the healthcare crisis "can only be effectively solved by a single-payer, Medicare-for-all approach," Markowitz said. Those are insurance companies' denials of needed medical care, including dropping people when they are sick or refusing to sell policies to people with preexisting conditions, and the financial crisis faced by many families due to soaring medical bills.

The common denominator to both problems is the insurance-based medical system. "The only way to fix our broken system is by unhooking our health to an insurance model that is premised on care denials and ever-skyrocketing prices. SB 840 in California, and the national bill, HR 676, are the only reforms that actually end insurance company control over our health," Markowitz said.

"Hardly a day passes in California without more reports of insurance companies turning down desperately needed care, or big companies rescinding coverage when people become ill, or families confronting unpayable medical bills while also grappling with the potential loss of their home. The need for SB 840 has never been greater," Markowitz said.

SB 840 establishes a state-administered system to provide comprehensive coverage to all Californians, delivered by our current mostly private network of physicians, hospitals, doctors’ offices, and other providers. Coverage would no longer be tied to job status or health condition or subject to ever rising premiums, copays and deductibles.

Single-payer – guaranteed healthcare and a healthier California

Much attention at Wednesday's hearing will likely be on the recent Legislative Analyst’s Office fiscal analysis which projected a substantial budget shortfall under SB 840 based on revenue projections drafted several years ago for an earlier version of the bill.

In her own analysis, Sen. Kuehl has said that the cost projections for the coming years under a single-payer system will still be less than the premiums Californians will be paying and other ancillary health costs to the state without SB 840.

Kuehl also noted that the LAO report confirms that SB 840 would save billions of dollars in administrative costs and other efficiencies.

Earlier projections on SB 840 have envisioned substantial savings by slashing administrative waste endemic to the insurance industry, the mandatory bulk purchasing leverage the state would effectively use by negotiating on behalf of all Californians, and economic gains from improved preventive and primary care.

All those factors become even more significant in a drastically declining economy, Markowitz said. "Everyone would have one standard of coverage and not be discouraged from seeking check-ups when well because of high deductibles and copays or denied care when they were sick just because it cost their insurer money."

"The result will be a healthier population and workforce in California. For businesses, that would mean higher productivity and less absenteeism, fewer workplace accidents, injuries, and worker’s comp claims.

"It means less costly emergency care and overburdening of county and state hospitals, clinics, and emergency response networks. It means more Californians earning, putting money back into the economy, able to pay mortgages, and contributing to reducing the state budget deficit. Overall, the impact will be both guaranteed healthcare and a healthier California," Markowitz said.