We applaud Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for trying to tackle such a diverse and complicated problem as health care. We strongly support a medical system that provides high quality, easy access for all Americans. However like many other proposals in the past, this one falls short in many ways — offering more band aides on a flawed system.

The governor wants everyone to share the cost of medical care, as they should. But how he proposes to divvy up the costs, just won’t work. He has managed to upset just about everyone in the health care industry.

The first problem is the 2 percent tax on doctors and 4 percent tax on hospitals. On one hand, the governor wants to increase Medi-Cal rates, which should have been done long ago since California’s rates are one of the worst in the country. So while doctors and hospitals get an increase from MediCal, the state wants to quickly take it away by taxing them.

A special tax on doctors and hospitals isn’t fair. What about the pharmaceutical companies, medical suppliers, nurses and others? Taxing doctors for delivering medical care to help support the system, is like assessing a special tax on highway contractors to support paying for expressways. It doesn’t make sense.

In California, the medical system continues to get stretched to its limits as the population grows and ages faster than the medical system expands. Physicians and hospitals are already providing free care to the uninsured, costing the industry millions of dollars each year that doesn’t get reimbursed.
Next, the governor wants to require that all employers with more than 10 employees offer health insurance. While it sounds good on the surface, it will be nearly impossible for a small restaurant or retail store to afford the high premiums that can reach thousands a month. Plus, when the state legislature passed such a law a few years ago, voters repealed it at the ballot box after a fight with the state chamber of commerce. Why does the governor think it will fly the second time around?

And what happens to the poor souls who fall through the cracks? The governor wants to offer them low-cost health insurance with a deductible up to $5,000 a year. Such a high deductible will only take care of people who have a serious illness and not the majority of people under the age of 65 who mostly just need primary care services.

The governor has taken a brave step with his health care reform proposal. But like many others, this one will likely not see the light of day. There are more than 40 million uninsured people in the United States, and 6.5 million of them in California. Our country is in dire need of reform, but a piecemeal approach at the state level isn’t the right solution. The burden should be on the entire country, rather than each state trying to repair our broken and bruised health care system.

Posted on January 19, 2007 03:34 PM