Comprehensive Health Reform
Cannot Be Abandoned
CHA President C. Duane Dauner
In the wake of last week’s rejection of AB X 1 1 by the Senate Health Committee, it could be easy for elected officials to fold up their proverbial “tents” and walk away from the goal of achieving comprehensive health care reform. After all, the state is facing a $14.5 billion budget deficit, and achieving the political consensus necessary to enact such a sweeping proposal is difficult at best.
This is not a time, however, to follow the easy path. Rather, this is one of those times when courageous leadership and vision are necessary to triumph over the obstacles of the moment. The Governor and legislative leaders should be commended for their ongoing, bipartisan commitment towards achieving comprehensive health care reform. Much ground has been gained and we must keep the momentum moving forward.
Make no mistake — the budget problems currently facing our state are real. So too, however, is the crisis in our health care system.
California’s health care system is near a financial meltdown. More than 6.8 million Californians are uninsured. Another 6.5 million people who are enrolled in the Medi-Cal program are increasingly finding it difficult to obtain care from doctors and hospitals because of woefully inadequate governmental payments. Medi-Cal payments to doctors and hospitals rank dead-last in the nation when compared to other states’ Medicaid programs. On average, California hospitals lose 40 percent of every dollar of care they provide to Medi-Cal patients. In the month of December alone, three hospitals were forced to terminate their Medi-Cal contracts with the state because of financial losses. This comes on top of decisions by 25 other hospitals that have severed their ties to the Medi-Cal program since 2000 — all because of multi-million dollar losses each year.
California’s hospitals are on the front lines in our health care system — operating around-the-clock emergency rooms and providing life-saving trauma care to all who need treatment — regardless of their ability to pay. These services come at a
cost — but unfortunately these costs aren’t being covered. In 2007, California hospitals provided $9.7 billion in uncompensated care — that’s care that was provided but not paid for. Included in that figure is $2.8 billion in direct losses stemming from inadequate Medi-Cal payments.
More than 70 California hospitals have closed in the past 10 years. Statewide, nearly half of California hospitals operate in the red. Nearly a half-dozen hospitals are either near or already in bankruptcy proceedings.
When hospital ERs are backlogged with Medi-Cal and other patients who can’t find doctors to care for them, it doesn’t matter how good your insurance coverage is — you and your loved ones have to wait to receive emergency care. When a hospital is forced to close its doors because it cannot sustain the financial losses resulting from the uninsured and Medi-Cal shortfalls, hospitals are lost to the entire community.
Last fall, California’s community hospitals became the first major stakeholder group to embrace Governor Schwarzenegger’s health reform proposal, despite the fact that it came with a new 4 percent fee on hospital revenues. Most of the funds generated by this new fee would have been matched by the federal government and used to increase Medi-Cal payments and expand health care coverage to the uninsured.
Tremendous momentum towards fixing our broken health care system was made during the past 12 months. A coalition of employers, labor, insurance companies, consumer groups and health care providers came together to support comprehensive health care reform. We must build on that momentum.
Although the state’s budget woes are formidable, ignoring the crisis in our health care system does nothing to solve this problem. Rather, it exacerbates the budget deficit even further. Despite the recent set-back, it’s imperative that stakeholders and elected officials continue working together to ensure that comprehensive health care reform is achieved. It’s the right thing to do for all Californians.
Return to Health Coverage Reform
|