Modesto speakers press for a new health system

Art de Werk, the police chief and public safety director for Ceres, said city policy forbids him from endorsing any of the health care reform legislation proposed in California.

Still, he felt compelled to speak at a Modesto gathering Thursday to share his family's experience with a health system that some believe is broken.

After his wife, Jill, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September, they encountered delays getting her to surgery to deal with the rapidly growing cancer. At each step, it took precious days to get insurance authorizations for imaging and consultations, he said.

The tiny lump had grown significantly by the time she had surgery in December. She has finished chemotherapy and was awaiting the results, de Werk said.

"I know that with the many things we had to fight for, the average person would not have won those battles," said de Werk, who has generous health benefits through the city and years of experience dealing with bureaucracy.

De Werk was among the speakers at Downey Community Park, where reform advocates gathered in support of a universal health care system for California.

The grass-roots group Health Care For All is holding events in 365 cities in the state to promote Senate Bill 840, written by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Mon-ica, to create a health system covering all California residents.

The bill calls for funding the system with the money employers, individuals and government are putting into health care. Supporters say more of the money would go for care instead of administration.

Organizing the Modesto event was the California School Employees Association, which represents bus drivers, custodians, clerical staff and instructional aides.

Another sponsor was the California Alliance for Retired Americans, whose members have distributed leaflets at Brenden Theatres during the showing of filmmaker Michael Moore's "SiCKO," a documentary on U.S. health care.

Rose Roach, a school employees association field director in Stockton, said about half of the union's 230,000 members statewide don't have employer-based coverage. Either they can't afford their share of the cost or don't work enough hours, she said.

In some local districts, the employee cost for insurance is $400 a month for individual plans and $800 a month for family coverage.

Roach said some members have to rely on Medi-Cal coverage and put their children in the state's Healthy Families program.

Caroline Motley said she is an instructional para-professional for Modesto City Schools, and her husband, who is selfemployed, is covered on her plan. He injects medicine five times a day to control his diabetes, she said.

"There is no way we can get insurance anywhere else," she said.

Sara Rogers, a Modesto native and consultant on Kuehl's staff, said universal health care is a model that works in other nations.

Rogers, whose family owns Scenic Nursery, said the profit-driven system in the United States can't be expected to serve people with diabetes or other chronic illnesses, and naturally tries to exclude them.

She said universal coverage "puts you in charge of your health care. It puts doctors back in charge of health care."

Kuehl's bill won't be pushed any further in the legislative process this year, she said, noting it makes more sense to bring it back in 2008 when presidential candidates debate health care reform.

Hospitals prefer different tack

The bill isn't supported by the association representing hospitals in California.

"We long have supported universal coverage, but we differ on how to get there," said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association.

The association would prefer to build on employer-based coverage. It supports proposals to require employers to provide insurance for workers or pay fees into the state health system. It agrees with making health insurance a requirement for everyone.

The Legislature still could approve a Democrat-supported reform plan, Assembly Bill 8, during its Aug. 20 to Sept. 14 session.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan for expanding coverage to the state's 6.5 million uninsured was never drafted into legislation, but some of his ideas could be included in AB 8 through negotiations with Democratic leaders.

De Werk didn't voice support for any proposal at Thursday's gathering but did credit the governor's initiative with spurring a discussion about health care.

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at www.modbee.com or 578-2321.

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