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Free Market "Champions" Oppose Single-Payer Health Plan
State Senator Sheila Kuehl, who represents Santa Monica, has authored one of the four prominent health care plans that challenge Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal. Kuehl’s plan—known as SB 840—is the only plan that offers comprehensive, single-payer health coverage to everyone in California. SB 840 calls for replacing the private health insurance companies with a statewide trust fund responsible for funding the program.
In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, Kuehl compared her own proposal with the other major plans suggested this legislative year. She rejects them all collectively for either not supporting universal coverage, placing too much of a burden on employers, or, in the case of the Governor’s proposal, the funding mechanism just doesn’t do the job.
Above all, Kuehl states that the other plans “can't be relied on to achieve what 80% of Californians say they want: a government guarantee of access to affordable healthcare.”
Not everyone thinks that Senator Kuehl’s plan is so great; one individual goes so far as to call it “horrific.”
John R. Graham, the director of Health Care Studies at the Pacific Research Institute (a “free-market” think tank) wrote another op-ed in the L.A. Times about the fears he sees in giving the government a monopoly over the health care industry.
Graham feels that one of the key issues with Kuehl’s plan is that it does not sufficiently address the soaring costs of health coverage. He argues that small co-pays hide the true cost of providing health services, which makes individuals more likely to demand them. In addition, he argues that most Californians are over-insured, meaning that insurances owners are paying for services they don’t need – much less use.
Sounding true to his free-market background, Graham says it has to change, but in favor of less – not more – government control.
But then Graham sounds like he doesn’t even see the need to cover the uninsured. “Eighty percent of the uninsured report good, very good, or excellent health,” he proudly boasts.
Of course, the so-called fiscal conservatives make their points without demeaning those in dire need of services – those who cannot afford heath insurance. He writes that the fiscal burden of supporting these individuals is “caused by uninsured patients who apparently have nothing better to do than sit around emergency rooms consuming treatment for which the rest of us pay.”
More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4373#more
Above all, Kuehl states that the other plans “can't be relied on to achieve what 80% of Californians say they want: a government guarantee of access to affordable healthcare.”
Not everyone thinks that Senator Kuehl’s plan is so great; one individual goes so far as to call it “horrific.”
John R. Graham, the director of Health Care Studies at the Pacific Research Institute (a “free-market” think tank) wrote another op-ed in the L.A. Times about the fears he sees in giving the government a monopoly over the health care industry.
Graham feels that one of the key issues with Kuehl’s plan is that it does not sufficiently address the soaring costs of health coverage. He argues that small co-pays hide the true cost of providing health services, which makes individuals more likely to demand them. In addition, he argues that most Californians are over-insured, meaning that insurances owners are paying for services they don’t need – much less use.
Sounding true to his free-market background, Graham says it has to change, but in favor of less – not more – government control.
But then Graham sounds like he doesn’t even see the need to cover the uninsured. “Eighty percent of the uninsured report good, very good, or excellent health,” he proudly boasts.
Of course, the so-called fiscal conservatives make their points without demeaning those in dire need of services – those who cannot afford heath insurance. He writes that the fiscal burden of supporting these individuals is “caused by uninsured patients who apparently have nothing better to do than sit around emergency rooms consuming treatment for which the rest of us pay.”
More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4373#more
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