I worked for Blue Cross in the early 70s and was involved with the dvelopment and introduction of the FED mandated HMO. It worked well….an admin under 5% (as was most BC products of the time). It wasn,t until they went to for profit and admin magically went to 25% plus….and stuck it to members an DRs alike.
Since we have severe budget problems in this state, I’m for any legislation that reduces the deficit as well as meets the needs of all Californians. Healthcare for all is the only way it should be done!!
The national health care reform bill is not effective. We need to get the health insurance profiteers out of the health business and take on big pharma. They spend more on advertising than they do on research. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm
As a small business I know the competitive disadvantage we are at without universal healthcare. As a world traveler I know how well the system works in other countries, even countries less developed than the United States.
If we can’t have it in the rest of the country, at least we should have it in the Republic of California!!!
Sen. Rubio one of the problems. He says he thinks ACA is a better way but won’t say why. Call his office and make him say!!! (559) 264-3070 Fresno or (661) 395-2620 Bakersfield or (916) 651-4016 Sacramento
I’d like to know what it will take for Senator Rubio and Hernandez to support single payer for Callifornians? We deserve a better life! I urge them both to not hesitate when considering the health of their constituents and to reduce our budget constraints. Health care costs are the main drain on the economy.
My husband is self employed. We pay a $950.00 per month premium for three people AND we pay for everything out of pocket because we have an $8,000.00 deductible. THIS IS INSANITY AND IT MUST STOP!!! If any legislator does NOT support a single-payer health care system, those legislators should trade their government run health insurance for mine!!!
To the U.S. government: Bring the troops home from the middle east, cut defense spending, stop funding Afghanistan, and give us affordable health care for ALL in the USA! We need to take care of OUR people first, not other countries. We need to put the U.S. first, and put our tax dollars back into caring for the citizens of the USA!
California needs this single payer system as soon as possible! Thank you.
It really seems strange to me that in general we provide fire departments to protect our people’s homes, police to protect our people’s property but nothing to protect our people’s health. Does it not seem strange that we value property over the life?
Healthcare is not an insurance issue it is a protection issue, the protection of our people’s lives and health. No other industrialised nation in the world shows so little disregard for their people and their welbeing as does this nation. How can we prosper if our people are not healthy, well educated and included as they were to some degree from the late 40′s until the mid 70′s?
If you have read much about this bill then much of the money will come from reduced or eliminated managment costs and the need to generate profits for stock holders. Our health should not be subject to the financial machinations of investors and CEO’s or worst yet some clerk who can deny you needed healthcare.
Maybe this a the first step, in these unprecedented times of concentrated corporate power, for Californians to unite and win. This is in everyone’s interest, even the taxpayers. Once there are enough people who understand this, we should have enough power to make a demand. “Power concedes nothing without a Demand. It never did, and it never will.” Frederick Douglas
I work for a large California county hospital. If you don’t think we have a ”socialist” health care system, come by the e.r. here and see firsthand the cost of handling our uninsured citizens. Taxpayer dollars are spent daily caring for poor people without insurance who have had to wait and wait until their condition is untreatable. I really hope this healthcare for all passes. We must have preventive care – that alone will save millions of dollars and many lives.
I don’t see any information about SB810 getting out to the general public, and no one seems to be coordinating any campaign to support it. Do you know anything about groups to join in promoting SB810?
And universal health care could save 29 billion dollars in administrative costs; the projected budget shortfall is 25 billion. Universal health care could save our state!
I agree. I hear SB 810 passed out of committee last week in the state senate on a party-line vote with one Democrat abstaining, but I don’t know what its current status is. Where is the campaign to promote this bill? I keep telling people about it, and everyone is very interested, but there is no information out in the public realm.
With Republicans threatening with filibusters in the Senate there was little hope that we could have gotten single payer at the national level. Obama and the Dems tried but you are right HCR didn’t go far enough. It’s up the states at this point. I live in Florida, but I used my grandma’s info to sign the petition. Good luck Californians!
I just looked at health insurance premiums for two people, and the quote was $7000 per *month*. Come on people, this is criminal! Health care should be something we all care about, and is in the public interest. Having it as “for-profit” insurance industry is a complete waste of resources and is destroying this country.
I am self employed, very healthy and I carry a high deductible health insurance policy combined with a HSA account. This is what GW Bush pushed as a private sector alternative to socialized medicine. A few years ago I went in for a “free” (offered by my insurance carrier Aetna) physical. It went well and a week later the doctor’s office called and told me everything was fine. A few weeks later I got a bill from the lab – Quest Diagnostics. I called them and said the physical was free under my plan. They said I was diagnosed as anemic and any non routine diagnosis was not covered. I called the doctor (put on hold, wait……, get the chart…..wait) and was told that my diagnosis was routine and no anemia was indicated. I called the lab back and they disagreed. I asked them if I should be treated for anemia and they said to consult with the doctor. I then called Aetna (put on hold, wait, listen to music etc) and they also told me I had anemia.
With bills and late fees piling up from the lab, I could not get the lab, Aetna and my doctor to do a conference call and straighten this out. I went into the doctor’s office (sign in…wait…read last year’s Ladies Home Journals…..rude look from receptionist when she learned I did not have appointment) and asked to see my chart or speak with the doc. All I got was a quick look at the chart from a nurse who said I did not have anemia and that I was very healthy for a 50 year old.
I finally filed a formal appeal with Aetna. After two months their internal review specialist concluded that I was diagnosed with anemia and I must pay the lab bill. It was not until I filed a complaint with the State of California (some socialist watch dog agency overseeing insurance companies) that Aetna finally relented and waived the bill and all its late charges.
When I hear that 20% or more of our health care costs come from insurance industry bureaucrats arguing over who pays what and when – I BELIEVE IT…..I LIVED IT. For me it was harmless but I lived it. It is real. I was healthy, had a lot of flexibility in my work schedule to pursue it during weekday office hours when the lab, my doctor and Aetna were all available by phone. Imagine someone stricken with a horrible disease or injury and being jerked around like this while trying to work full time.
As Mr. Dione says, we have only gone half way to a system competitive with the other major economies. We will become less and less competitive as long as entrepreneurs (especially those with families) have to make decisions with the dark cloud of their health care costs, and the threat of healt rel
We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have some sort of universal non-profit healthcare. As a competitive businessman, I can’t compete with companies from around the world that do not have to pay for their employees’ healthcare when I do! Let’s get socialized medicine going in California and show the rest of the country how it’s done. Now’s the time, with Democrats in charge (which is the only time anything ever gets done)!
The only way we can have quality health care at affordable price is to remove the massive insurance companies that drive up costs by the billions they take by being the middle man and robbing us blind. Single payer is the only way.
How much should an EMR Visit cost the uninsured (Unemployed for three years following a workers comp. claim which I had to sue Keenan who covers University Employees. They denied the claim – Haven’t been able to get back to working since) Cost of A broken toe for the following services:
1. Clerk Check-in.
2. Escort to X-ray
3. X-ray
4. Nurse brings blanket
5. Xray viewed
6. Dr. wiggles toe
7. Nurse puts on tape
8. Given a shoe made in Vietnam.
$989.00.
It was bad enough losing my job, being injured on the job, not being eligible for any state aid, unemployment, disability and having to sue to pay medical bills for their neglect. But this is just plain stupid. Who is running the medical system? The oil companies?
I am an advocate for people in pain. Often these folks have had to quit work due to health conditions and frequently lose their health care insurance. These folks can not then get the treatment necessary to help them recover and possibly go to work again. We need single payer desperately.
My wife just lost her job, which had a group HMO and was very affordable, so now I have to pay for the full policy and it’s officially MORE THAN THE RENT ON A 3 BEDROOM HOUSE!!! We are now barely scraping by month to month….I get it more folks have it worse so let’s get this thing done in CA. SAVES REPUBLICANS
$$ TOO!
The double mandate — no one may be denied, everyone must participate — is a great idea, and let’s take it a step further: triple mandate — everyone pays the same. regardless of health status, age, zip code, etc. That would be true social justice!
If California could accomplish this very large goal, the entire nation could take a fresh look at the public option and/or Medicare buy in. At the very least, we Californians can and should take care of our own.
I am a single 39 year old male who’s been rejected by all regular individual insurance plans I’ve applied for b/c of the pre-existing condition clause. I currently have insurance through Aetna only through the Individual Conversion of a COBRA plan. My premium just rose from $520 to $608 a month.
Just found out my healthcare coverage will go up another 100 dollars to nearly 1600 dollars a month for my family of 3. This is through my employer. When I called to say I needed a lower rate they said all 3 of us would have to see if we qualify individually even though somehow we all qualify if it’s under my employer. This whole nonsense is a racket! Single Payer now!
Single-payer universal health care is the only way to provide quality, accessible health care to everyone. Inserting the insurance companies into the mix makes no sense for anyone, except those who share the insurance company profits. The question no one in the federal government wants to ask is “why are insurance companies in the health care coverage business?” The fact is, insurance is for something that might happen – a fire, an auto accident, etc.. Health care coverage is something that everyone will need at some point in their lives and it should be a right, not a privilege, in any developed country.
I support this cause unless it would also allow those who are not in the country legally to receive benefits at the taxpayers expense. I am tired of them being allowed to take advantage of services I can not even get and then I have to pay for them.
Yes! If we do not take the legalized “personhood” (all the rights of a real human being and none of the responsibilities = psychopath) of Corporations away, one way or another, they will find a way to corrupt every good idea we come up with. That being said, and hopefully done, I would stand behind California One Care 100%. But before that law is changed? I don’t see how we can keep them from finding a way around whatever we do. Seriously, about a decade and a half ago, private companies bought out Medi-Cal in California. Bet most readers don’t know that. I didn’t at the time and I was myself on Medi-Cal. Same thing is being done less violatively, but more sophisticated in splashy ads sent out to Medicare patients: “sell your MediCare to this HMO and they’ll take care of what you just lost from your Medi-Caid.” I would want to know how CA1Care has mapped out how to help the CA state government resist such temptations, especially given the kick-backs many of these so-called “health organizations” or HMOs give when a politician backs them, and lets them in the back door. It’s already happened to the Feds and our own State. How do we keep them out of this? It’s vital, imho, to get this mapped out first before we get too far down the road.
Yes! If we do not take the legalized “personhood” (all the rights of a real human being and none of the responsibilities = psychopath) of Corporations away, one way or another, they will find a way to corrupt every good idea we come up with. That being said, and hopefully done, I would stand behind California One Care 100%. But before that law is changed? I don’t see how we can keep them from finding a way around whatever we do. Seriously, about a decade and a half ago, private companies bought out Medi-Cal in California. Bet most readers don’t know that. I didn’t at the time and I was myself on Medi-Cal. Same thing is being done less violatively, but more sophisticated in splashy ads sent out to Medicare patients: “sell your MediCare to this HMO and they’ll take care of what you just lost from your Medi-Caid.” I would want to know how CA1Care has mapped out how to help the CA state government resist such temptations, especially given the kick-backs many of these so-called “health organizations” or HMOs give when a politician backs them, and lets them in the back door. It’s already happened to the Feds and our own State. How do we keep them out of this? It’s vital, imho, to get this mapped out first before we get too far down the road.
I worked for Blue Cross in the early 70s and was involved with the dvelopment and introduction of the FED mandated HMO. It worked well….an admin under 5% (as was most BC products of the time). It wasn,t until they went to for profit and admin magically went to 25% plus….and stuck it to members an DRs alike.
Since we have severe budget problems in this state, I’m for any legislation that reduces the deficit as well as meets the needs of all Californians. Healthcare for all is the only way it should be done!!
The national health care reform bill is not effective. We need to get the health insurance profiteers out of the health business and take on big pharma. They spend more on advertising than they do on research. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm
CALIFORNIA IS BROKE
As a small business I know the competitive disadvantage we are at without universal healthcare. As a world traveler I know how well the system works in other countries, even countries less developed than the United States.
If we can’t have it in the rest of the country, at least we should have it in the Republic of California!!!
Sen. Rubio one of the problems. He says he thinks ACA is a better way but won’t say why. Call his office and make him say!!! (559) 264-3070 Fresno or (661) 395-2620 Bakersfield or (916) 651-4016 Sacramento
I’d like to know what it will take for Senator Rubio and Hernandez to support single payer for Callifornians? We deserve a better life! I urge them both to not hesitate when considering the health of their constituents and to reduce our budget constraints. Health care costs are the main drain on the economy.
My husband is self employed. We pay a $950.00 per month premium for three people AND we pay for everything out of pocket because we have an $8,000.00 deductible. THIS IS INSANITY AND IT MUST STOP!!! If any legislator does NOT support a single-payer health care system, those legislators should trade their government run health insurance for mine!!!
To the U.S. government: Bring the troops home from the middle east, cut defense spending, stop funding Afghanistan, and give us affordable health care for ALL in the USA! We need to take care of OUR people first, not other countries. We need to put the U.S. first, and put our tax dollars back into caring for the citizens of the USA!
California needs this single payer system as soon as possible! Thank you.
It really seems strange to me that in general we provide fire departments to protect our people’s homes, police to protect our people’s property but nothing to protect our people’s health. Does it not seem strange that we value property over the life?
Healthcare is not an insurance issue it is a protection issue, the protection of our people’s lives and health. No other industrialised nation in the world shows so little disregard for their people and their welbeing as does this nation. How can we prosper if our people are not healthy, well educated and included as they were to some degree from the late 40′s until the mid 70′s?
I firmly support SB 810.
If you have read much about this bill then much of the money will come from reduced or eliminated managment costs and the need to generate profits for stock holders. Our health should not be subject to the financial machinations of investors and CEO’s or worst yet some clerk who can deny you needed healthcare.
Maybe this a the first step, in these unprecedented times of concentrated corporate power, for Californians to unite and win. This is in everyone’s interest, even the taxpayers. Once there are enough people who understand this, we should have enough power to make a demand. “Power concedes nothing without a Demand. It never did, and it never will.” Frederick Douglas
I work for a large California county hospital. If you don’t think we have a ”socialist” health care system, come by the e.r. here and see firsthand the cost of handling our uninsured citizens. Taxpayer dollars are spent daily caring for poor people without insurance who have had to wait and wait until their condition is untreatable. I really hope this healthcare for all passes. We must have preventive care – that alone will save millions of dollars and many lives.
I don’t see any information about SB810 getting out to the general public, and no one seems to be coordinating any campaign to support it. Do you know anything about groups to join in promoting SB810?
And universal health care could save 29 billion dollars in administrative costs; the projected budget shortfall is 25 billion. Universal health care could save our state!
I agree. I hear SB 810 passed out of committee last week in the state senate on a party-line vote with one Democrat abstaining, but I don’t know what its current status is. Where is the campaign to promote this bill? I keep telling people about it, and everyone is very interested, but there is no information out in the public realm.
With Republicans threatening with filibusters in the Senate there was little hope that we could have gotten single payer at the national level. Obama and the Dems tried but you are right HCR didn’t go far enough. It’s up the states at this point. I live in Florida, but I used my grandma’s info to sign the petition. Good luck Californians!
Health care in the is only “socialistic” for its legislators. Let’s extend the same health care they enjoy to everyone else.
I work as a Registered Nurse at a hospital here in Cali. I believe that a single-payer is the only answer.
I just looked at health insurance premiums for two people, and the quote was $7000 per *month*. Come on people, this is criminal! Health care should be something we all care about, and is in the public interest. Having it as “for-profit” insurance industry is a complete waste of resources and is destroying this country.
Try hitting the “get involved” tab on the right sidebar of this page
I am self employed, very healthy and I carry a high deductible health insurance policy combined with a HSA account. This is what GW Bush pushed as a private sector alternative to socialized medicine. A few years ago I went in for a “free” (offered by my insurance carrier Aetna) physical. It went well and a week later the doctor’s office called and told me everything was fine. A few weeks later I got a bill from the lab – Quest Diagnostics. I called them and said the physical was free under my plan. They said I was diagnosed as anemic and any non routine diagnosis was not covered. I called the doctor (put on hold, wait……, get the chart…..wait) and was told that my diagnosis was routine and no anemia was indicated. I called the lab back and they disagreed. I asked them if I should be treated for anemia and they said to consult with the doctor. I then called Aetna (put on hold, wait, listen to music etc) and they also told me I had anemia.
With bills and late fees piling up from the lab, I could not get the lab, Aetna and my doctor to do a conference call and straighten this out. I went into the doctor’s office (sign in…wait…read last year’s Ladies Home Journals…..rude look from receptionist when she learned I did not have appointment) and asked to see my chart or speak with the doc. All I got was a quick look at the chart from a nurse who said I did not have anemia and that I was very healthy for a 50 year old.
I finally filed a formal appeal with Aetna. After two months their internal review specialist concluded that I was diagnosed with anemia and I must pay the lab bill. It was not until I filed a complaint with the State of California (some socialist watch dog agency overseeing insurance companies) that Aetna finally relented and waived the bill and all its late charges.
When I hear that 20% or more of our health care costs come from insurance industry bureaucrats arguing over who pays what and when – I BELIEVE IT…..I LIVED IT. For me it was harmless but I lived it. It is real. I was healthy, had a lot of flexibility in my work schedule to pursue it during weekday office hours when the lab, my doctor and Aetna were all available by phone. Imagine someone stricken with a horrible disease or injury and being jerked around like this while trying to work full time.
As Mr. Dione says, we have only gone half way to a system competitive with the other major economies. We will become less and less competitive as long as entrepreneurs (especially those with families) have to make decisions with the dark cloud of their health care costs, and the threat of healt rel
We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have some sort of universal non-profit healthcare. As a competitive businessman, I can’t compete with companies from around the world that do not have to pay for their employees’ healthcare when I do! Let’s get socialized medicine going in California and show the rest of the country how it’s done. Now’s the time, with Democrats in charge (which is the only time anything ever gets done)!
The only way we can have quality health care at affordable price is to remove the massive insurance companies that drive up costs by the billions they take by being the middle man and robbing us blind. Single payer is the only way.
How much should an EMR Visit cost the uninsured (Unemployed for three years following a workers comp. claim which I had to sue Keenan who covers University Employees. They denied the claim – Haven’t been able to get back to working since) Cost of A broken toe for the following services:
1. Clerk Check-in.
2. Escort to X-ray
3. X-ray
4. Nurse brings blanket
5. Xray viewed
6. Dr. wiggles toe
7. Nurse puts on tape
8. Given a shoe made in Vietnam.
$989.00.
It was bad enough losing my job, being injured on the job, not being eligible for any state aid, unemployment, disability and having to sue to pay medical bills for their neglect. But this is just plain stupid. Who is running the medical system? The oil companies?
I am an advocate for people in pain. Often these folks have had to quit work due to health conditions and frequently lose their health care insurance. These folks can not then get the treatment necessary to help them recover and possibly go to work again. We need single payer desperately.
My wife just lost her job, which had a group HMO and was very affordable, so now I have to pay for the full policy and it’s officially MORE THAN THE RENT ON A 3 BEDROOM HOUSE!!! We are now barely scraping by month to month….I get it more folks have it worse so let’s get this thing done in CA. SAVES REPUBLICANS
$$ TOO!
The double mandate — no one may be denied, everyone must participate — is a great idea, and let’s take it a step further: triple mandate — everyone pays the same. regardless of health status, age, zip code, etc. That would be true social justice!
If California could accomplish this very large goal, the entire nation could take a fresh look at the public option and/or Medicare buy in. At the very least, we Californians can and should take care of our own.
I am a single 39 year old male who’s been rejected by all regular individual insurance plans I’ve applied for b/c of the pre-existing condition clause. I currently have insurance through Aetna only through the Individual Conversion of a COBRA plan. My premium just rose from $520 to $608 a month.
Healthcare for all is a moral imperative. Additionally, it would keep costs down.
Just found out my healthcare coverage will go up another 100 dollars to nearly 1600 dollars a month for my family of 3. This is through my employer. When I called to say I needed a lower rate they said all 3 of us would have to see if we qualify individually even though somehow we all qualify if it’s under my employer. This whole nonsense is a racket! Single Payer now!
Single-payer universal health care is the only way to provide quality, accessible health care to everyone. Inserting the insurance companies into the mix makes no sense for anyone, except those who share the insurance company profits. The question no one in the federal government wants to ask is “why are insurance companies in the health care coverage business?” The fact is, insurance is for something that might happen – a fire, an auto accident, etc.. Health care coverage is something that everyone will need at some point in their lives and it should be a right, not a privilege, in any developed country.
For-profit health insurance is organized crime.
We don’t need “health insurance” we need health CARE.
I support this cause unless it would also allow those who are not in the country legally to receive benefits at the taxpayers expense. I am tired of them being allowed to take advantage of services I can not even get and then I have to pay for them.
Yes! If we do not take the legalized “personhood” (all the rights of a real human being and none of the responsibilities = psychopath) of Corporations away, one way or another, they will find a way to corrupt every good idea we come up with. That being said, and hopefully done, I would stand behind California One Care 100%. But before that law is changed? I don’t see how we can keep them from finding a way around whatever we do. Seriously, about a decade and a half ago, private companies bought out Medi-Cal in California. Bet most readers don’t know that. I didn’t at the time and I was myself on Medi-Cal. Same thing is being done less violatively, but more sophisticated in splashy ads sent out to Medicare patients: “sell your MediCare to this HMO and they’ll take care of what you just lost from your Medi-Caid.” I would want to know how CA1Care has mapped out how to help the CA state government resist such temptations, especially given the kick-backs many of these so-called “health organizations” or HMOs give when a politician backs them, and lets them in the back door. It’s already happened to the Feds and our own State. How do we keep them out of this? It’s vital, imho, to get this mapped out first before we get too far down the road.
Yes! If we do not take the legalized “personhood” (all the rights of a real human being and none of the responsibilities = psychopath) of Corporations away, one way or another, they will find a way to corrupt every good idea we come up with. That being said, and hopefully done, I would stand behind California One Care 100%. But before that law is changed? I don’t see how we can keep them from finding a way around whatever we do. Seriously, about a decade and a half ago, private companies bought out Medi-Cal in California. Bet most readers don’t know that. I didn’t at the time and I was myself on Medi-Cal. Same thing is being done less violatively, but more sophisticated in splashy ads sent out to Medicare patients: “sell your MediCare to this HMO and they’ll take care of what you just lost from your Medi-Caid.” I would want to know how CA1Care has mapped out how to help the CA state government resist such temptations, especially given the kick-backs many of these so-called “health organizations” or HMOs give when a politician backs them, and lets them in the back door. It’s already happened to the Feds and our own State. How do we keep them out of this? It’s vital, imho, to get this mapped out first before we get too far down the road.