Experts claim the political climate is right for true reform to occur in the health-care industry

Brace yourself. After years of discussion about healthcare reform in California, it appears that a major overhaul of our system just might happen this year, experts say.

There are four major healthcare reform proposals in Sacramento, and more could be introduced by the end of February. In the first two months of this year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Don Perata (D-East Bay), Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and the California Republican Senate Caucus submitted healthcare reform proposals.

“What’s common among these proposals is trying to figure out how to get health insurance for everyone,” said Fred Noteware, a Sacramento lobbyist for the Association of Northern California Oncologists. “I’ve never seen this much attention focused on this issue.”

With skyrocketing healthcare costs during the last decade, an increased number of uninsured and no end in sight, lawmakers at the state and federal level plan to reform the system this year. And any change to the system will have an impact on everyone who provides medical care, said Noteware.

Health care is a business yet it’s personal and emotional, which makes it a controversial subject for policymakers. And this year appears to be a good time to take on the health-care industry since it isn’t an election year, experts said.

The proposals are similar in many ways, except for how they are funded. For example, the governor’s plan would tax physicians, hospitals, employers, and employees to cover some costs, while Perata’s plan depends on contributions from employees and employers only, according to a comparison report issued by the Senate Republican Caucus.

It’s too early in the process to get concerned about any one proposal. “In my perspective, none of these proposals will survive in its current form,” Noteware said.

Policymakers in Sacramento are depending on healthcare experts at the California Healthcare Foundation to provide them with the necessary information, counsel and guidance on how to mold the reform, said Mariane Mulkey, senior program officer at CHF in Oakland.

California Healthcare Foundation has hired experts with the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, a nonprofit healthcare think tank in Washington, D.C., to help the California Legislature craft its health-care reform, said Mulkey.

In addition, CHF has hired Jonathan Gruber, an economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to advise legislators. Gruber was instrumental in the development of health-care reform in Massachusetts where a law was passed last year that would provide medical care for nearly everyone in the state by 2009.

Health-care proposals should move pretty quickly through the legislative process. The deadline for new legislation is Feb. 23, and then the bills need to get through the policy committee by April 27, said Noteware.

In April, an evaluation of the proposals should be available. The evaluation is an unbiased opinion of how the proposals would affect the various stakeholders, including physicians and general public, Noteware said.

Attempts in the past to reform health care in California ended up at the ballot box. When the legislature passed a mandate for employers to offer health insurance, and governor Gray Davis signed it into law in 2003, the business community took it to the voters. The insurance mandate was repealed by less than a 1 percent margin.

Policymakers and health-care advocates don’t want their exhausting hard work of reform this year to end up at the ballot box next year, said Paul Hefner, who is working on Perata’s healthcare advertising campaign.

Perata launched commercials in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento on January 22. In the commercial, he is surrounded by children and encourages people to visit his Web site to learn more about his health-care reform proposal.

The objective is to influence public opinion early in the process and hopefully gain the public’s support for health-care reform, Hefner said.

A similar strategy worked last year for the $37 billion infrastructure bond package that was on the ballot. It was the biggest bond package of its kind, ever, said Hefner. Politicians started airing commercials early in the year to influence public opinion. And it worked, the bond measure passed.

Hefner wouldn’t say how much Perata is spending on the commercials, but did reveal that more than $18 million was spent on commercials regarding the infrastructure bond package.

The commercials are being funded with political contributions, and might start to air on stations in Southern California soon, Hefner said. But a decision on how often or when hasn’t been made.

“We are just trying to get the dialogue started,” Hefner said. “We can’t remain silent. Those who are against reform have already started to broadcast their own commercials.”

—By Troy May

Troy May is editor of Bay Area Oncology News. You can reach him at tmay@baoncologynews.com.

Posted on February 14, 2007 09:20 AM