Health care system: Is there a cure?
Single-payer plan gains state Senate endorsement

By STEVE BROWN
Staff Writer

Chicoer.com

The solution to the country's broken health care system is a single-payer, government-managed program, says Butte County Health Care Coalition board member Georgia Summer.

Is she talking about socialized medicine?

Not exactly. She said SB 840, a bill state Sen. Sheila Kuehl has introduced in the California Legislature, would provide "socialized insurance." The same public and private agencies that provide medical care now would continue to offer it. But the system would be funded by a combination of state income taxes, premiums paid by businesses and state monies currently spent on health care, and it would be administered by a government agency.

It would replace the private health insurance system, run by what Summers calls "the powers that be."

She said insurance companies are prepared to fight the bill if they think it has a chance of being adopted. But the coalition and other groups are working on a statewide campaign called One Care Now "to inoculate the public against insurance companies' propaganda."

Summers said she is sure that if the bill becomes law in California, other states will adopt similar programs.

In a talk Friday at Chico Sports Club, Summers challenged the belief that the United States has the best health care in the world. She said the World Health Organization ranks this country 37th in quality — between Costa Rica and Slovenia. She said this country has a lower life expectancy and a higher infant mortality rate than many developed countries and its citizens pay more for care than people in other countries.

Summers said since 2000 the cost of health care in this country has grown five times as fast as the overall inflation rate and annual increases in health insurance premiums have been in the double digits. "Last year, the increase averaged 13 percent." She said co-pays and deductibles have gone up along with premiums.

In a video Summers showed that presents the case for Kuehl's bill, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said 30 percent of the money insurance companies collect is spent on costs that have nothing to do with health care. They include paperwork, profits and high salaries for company executives. He said the companies "answer to Wall Street, not the people who receive health care."

Summers noted that administrative costs of Medicare, the federal government's existing single-payer health program, are about 3 percent.

She said Kuehl's bill would eliminate co-pays and deductibles and allow patients to choose their primary care provider. According to the video, the bill would cover a wide range of services including prescription drugs, mental health care, dentistry and vision care, inpatient and outpatient services, immunizations and lab work. Summers said an analysis by the Lewin Group, a national health care and human services consulting firm, found that the bill would save $8 billion in costs in its first year through streamlining administrative costs and purchasing drugs and medical equipment in bulk.

Summers said the bill has already been passed by the state Senate and is now making its way through Assembly committees. If it is to be adopted this year, the Assembly has until Aug. 31 to pass it and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Sept. 30 to either sign or veto it.

"Will the governor sign it?" Summers asked. "Who knows?" She said if the bill doesn't make it this year it will be introduced again next year. "I have been working on this kind of health insurance plan since 1993. I was just a child when Social Security started, but now I'm one of its beneficiaries. This type of health care plan is something I would like to leave for the future. It's hard. It's a major social change. The powers that be don't want change. The insurance companies have the power and money to fight it.

"We live in an increasingly corporate world," Summers said. "More and more, people have less and less power." But she said universal health care is a right people should fight for.

Staff writer Steve Brown can be reached at 896-7755 or sbrown@chicoer.com.

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