Health Care – Key Themes

• Everyone has the right to adequate and affordable health care.
• California and the U.S. have elements of a world-class healthcare system that few can afford.
• Single Payer Healthcare is a proven, economically powerful solution

Background

The United States spends more per person for health care than any other nation in the world, yet it ranks only 37th by WHO standards in quality of health care. Decades of profiteering by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries have brought us to the limit of what we can bear financially, or what we should bear in terms of inadequate healthcare coverage and uneven quality. In California, over 20% of the population is uninsured. Many more have insurance that will not pay for the care they need. Out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles, co-pays, and the cost of insurance and medicines increase every year. Many Californians, especially among seniors, pay for large portions of their health care costs out of their pockets, sometimes having to dilute their medications or cut back on their food budgets to afford their treatment.

What We Propose

Polls have repeatedly shown that Californians (and the U.S. population as a whole) support Single Payer Universal Health Care. As Governor, Laura Wells will:

• Actively support establishing a Single Payer Universal Health Care system. This means health insurance coverage for ALL residents through a single insurance plan offered by the government. This would control the growth of health care spending through a simplified administrative structure, consolidated financing and purchasing, and statewide health planning.
• That system must offer a comprehensive benefit package, including complete medical, dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, chiropractic, vision, hearing, hospice, and in-home care. No necessary service can be left out. If co-pays and deductibles are included to finance the system, they must be reasonable and affordable. This system should eventually cover long-term care and the medical component of Workers Compensation. We support State or Federal efforts that would establish such a system.

SB 840 (the Single Payer bill introduced by State Senator Sheila Kuehl) passed both houses of California’s legislature in both 2006 and 2008 and was vetoed both times by Governor Schwarzenegger. As Governor, Laura Wells would take great pleasure in signing the next such bill into law.

• Everyone must have access to all necessary medical care, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, including those who are unable to pay for it. Preventive care and injury prevention should be emphasized, and social support services should be supported. Measures to minimize post-traumatic stress syndromes, mental distress, and psychological problems after injury, illness, or social neglect need support too. We also support measures to assure adequate supply of primary care providers, nurses, and other allied health care personnel.
• Care must be culturally competent. Our health care system must affirm rights to human dignity, personal choice, and privacy. It must practice respect for racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and other cultural needs/differences. We support giving patients complete freedom of choice as to their form of treatment or to refuse treatment, as part of a patient's Bill of Rights.
• We strongly support a holistic approach to health care. Different philosophies of care, broadly characterized as conventional and alternative/complementary care co-exist and sometimes compete. Both have roles in a modern and compassionate health care system.

We need reasonable prices for all medical goods and services. The largest single unnecessary cost are the for-profit health-insurance systems that inflate overall medical costs through billing for high-profit margins, unnecessary services and costly pharmaceuticals on one hand, while denying care to millions on the other. There are too many overpriced health care products. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has the highest profit margin of any sector of the economy. The bulk purchasing power of a Single Payer system will allow the prices for pharmaceutical and durable medical equipment to be greatly reduced and more in line with the prices that the rest of the world currently pays for these products.

• We want hospitals, clinics, and other care providers to develop management that is more democratic and representative. People representing health care workers, consumers, and other public interests should be included on the Board of Directors and other governing structures.

• We support reimbursement of health care costs for all residents, including costs of therapy to treat psychological damage, mental distress, and traumatic shock as well as the physical effects. California's medical marijuana law should be fully recognized and implemented by all the appropriate local, state, and Federal jurisdictions. The Federal government must not interfere with or downgrade duly enacted California laws on health care or environmental protections that have health impacts.