I am not a big believer in universal health reform at the state level. For reasons I've
outlined at length elsewhere, states tend to be too fiscally unstable to make such plans work. Even so, the proposal currently snaking its way through the California legislative process is an impressive feat of policy construction and political compromise -- and it may point toward the sort of coalition that can eventually be created for national reform.
The California proposal will, in its broad outlines, be familiar to anyone following the policy releases of the major Democratic campaigns (that is to say, approximately 13 of you). The plan is built around an individual mandate that forces most everyone to buy insurance; new regulations that end insurers' ability to price-discriminate based on preexisting conditions and health status; and a system of subsidies and tax credits to increase affordability. It also expands a range of public programs, institutes new cost-saving measures (like authorizing the state to purchase prescription drugs in bulk),
requires that insurers spend 85 cents of every dollar on actual health-care services, creates a public insurance option able to compete with the private insurers, and much more (a detailed analysis of the legislation can be found
here). It even -- and admirably -- avoids easy demagoguery, refusing to deny care to the children of undocumented immigrants.
Source:
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?arti...lthcare_reform accessed 12/30/07.
Inch by inch there is a movement towards reform emerging.
The following members say Thank You:
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