Breaking from the Pack: Business leaders support
Medicare-for-All-Californians bill SB 840

Copyright: PR Newswire
Source: PR Newswire

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- As State Senator Sheila
Kuehl's Medicare for All Californians bill (SB 840) goes up for its
first vote today, small business leaders from the San Francisco Bay and
LA areas raised their voices in support of the bill. They also
challenged small business from across California to follow their example
and embrace a "permanent fix" to California's health care crisis.

"As business leaders, each of us is committed to our employees. We want
to be able offer health benefits that show our commitment. But health
care costs are out of control," said John Hughes, president of the
Oscar-winning special effects firm, Rhythm & Hues, based in Los Angeles.

"We need a real solution - not just any plan thrown together to avoid
stepping on the toes of special interests. A solution should be simple,
it should be affordable, and it should be based on real-world
experience," added Mal Warwick, founder and chairman of the
Berkeley-based consulting agency Mal Warwick Associates and former chair
of the nationwide business organization Social Venture Network.

"The solution lies in Medicare and the Medicare-for-all Californians
bill, SB 840, which our colleagues in business should now embrace as a
model for solving California's health care woes," Hughes said. "Some
business groups support minor adjustments to our current system that
keep the system's problems at the heart of health care," he added.

"The so-called business leadership was wrong on recognizing Global
Warming as a real threat, and they're wrong now to back an insurance
company-guided tweak of the system," Warwick said.

"Almost every American knows a satisfied Medicare recipient. Medicare
has served our parents and grandparents and now serves 43 million
Americans, and few of them would switch," Hughes noted.

"Medicare is funded by government but not delivered by government. With
administrative costs of less than 4 percent, it is the most
cost-efficient health care system in the U.S.," explained Warwick.

"The proof of market-managed care's failure is right in front of our
noses - from premiums that have jumped 87% in the last six years to the
systematic cancellation of policies due to pregnancy and other
'conditions.' Benefits have declined, and employees' complaints and
conflicts with insurers are up," said Hughes.

"We need to avoid wasting more time, money, and lives, but that's what
will happen if we experiment with another tweaked version of the current
failed system," Warwick asserted.

"Sen. Kuehl's SB 840 delivers comprehensive care - all non-elective
hospital and doctors' procedures and care, plus preventive medical,
mental, vision, dental and home care benefits," Warwick noted.
"Prescription drugs are covered, too. If you lose your job or business,
you and your family don't lose your health care - nor is it cut back.
All of the other universal coverage programs before the legislature are
vague on costs, their benefits are unclear, and they perpetuate the
inefficient, high-cost, health care insurance bureaucracies that now run
the system," said Hughes.

"Health care has to be paid for, but don't be fooled: All of the
universal health care proposals currently before the legislature -
including the Governor's - call for payroll taxes," said Warwick.

"According to the Lewin Group, State Senator Sheila Kuehl's SB 840,
Medicare for All Californians, would need an 8 percent payroll tax on
all employers and 4 percent on all employees. But the savings realized
by eliminating the insurance companies, through lower administrative
costs, and bulk purchasing of drugs and medical equipment, will make it
possible to cover all Californians and spend less money than we
currently spend," Warwick stated.

"Corporate advisor McKinsey & Company recently reported that the cost
savings from eliminating the insurance companies alone are more than
sufficient to provide health care for all uninsured Americans," said
Hughes.

"Not surprisingly, the major insurers are most vocal in their criticism
of SB 840. But it's time for business leaders and politicians to say,
'The best solution is right in front of our noses: SB 840, Medicare for
all Californians'," concluded Warwick.

SOURCE John Hughes

CONTACT: John Hughes, +1-310-447-4501, or Mal Warwick, +1-510-843-8888

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