Impact on Federal Government
- Funding included federal dollars.
Impact on States
- The state would have funded emergency Medi-Cal and subsidized insurance for the poor.
Impact on Insurers
- Insurers were mandated to provide coverage to anyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions (guaranteed issue health insurance), to spend 85 percent of every premium dollar on patient care, and to make “Healthy Actions” benefits available to promote healthy behaviors.
Impact on Providers
- Physicians would have paid 2 percent of their revenue and hospitals 4 percent to help finance the system.
Impact on Employers
- Employers would have paid 1-6.5 percent of their payroll into a state pool if they did not provide insurance. Those with fewer than 10 employees were exempt. Incentives would have been put in place to prevent employers from dropping coverage and leaving employees to turn to the government programs.
Impact on Individuals
- Individual mandate: everyone would have been required to buy private insurance, or get it through work, or enroll in a subsidized program.
- Assistance provided for low-income families.
- Expanded public assistance programs: Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.
- Individuals encouraged and rewarded to be healthy and take preventive measures.
| Proponents/Opponents |
Proponents of this approach pointed to the large uninsured population in California—an estimated 4.9 million--to underscore the critical nature of any healthcare reform in the state. Even proponents who acknowledged flaws in the plan said that the current situation was untenable.
|
Many opposed the individual mandate, charging that insurance simply will not be affordable to all. Some opponents also preferred the idea of a single-payor system. They believe that greater cost savings would occur if all Californians were in one patient pool, with the government paying all the bills. Business owners were also opposed to the fees that the proposal imposed on them. In the end, opponents killed the bill mainly because there was great concern that the state could not afford it.
|
|
Key Targets for InvestmentHealth information technology initiatives involving e-prescribing, portable electronic health records, enhanced broadband capabilities to permit telemedicine, and more.
Subsidies, at various levels, to help the poor buy insurance.
Notable Features
- Allowed pretax contributions into Health Savings Accounts.
- Extended coverage to residents without a Green Card (undocumented residents; residents with temporary visas).
- Promoted statutory and regulatory changes to allow creation of other, lower-cost venues for health care such as retail healthcare clinics.
- Healthcare reform in California has been particularly contentious, with a variety of proposed bills and a range of vocal stakeholders.
Experts' Comments"California's failure, after coming so close, underscores the lesson that too many states don't have the political will or resources to reform health care on their own, and thus the need for a national solution of some kind."
–Drew Altman,
President,
Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation, quoted in the Washington Post, Jan. 29, 2008.
"This bill [ABX11] is based on fairy tale assumptions."
Sen. Dave Cox, R- Fair Oaks, quoted in the East Bay Business Times, Jan 28, 2008.
|
