Letter to the Editor in San Deigo Union Tribune

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San Diego Union Tribune
December 18, 2007

To the Editors:

On December 17, 2007 you reported that the California Assembly with Governor Schwarzenegger’s support passed ABX1-1 to provide California with “the world class health system it deserves.” This bill proposes to subsidize medical insurance to 3.6 million more Californians, including 800,000 children, at a cost of $14 billion through private health insurance companies. ABX1-1 is not a solution to the medical care crisis. Mandating insurance provides neither a guarantee of affordable insurability, nor actual medical services, nor does it resolve the problems of the tremendously expensive administrative overhead and system inefficiencies of the private insurance based system. Legislated mandates for health insurance have been tried in Massachusetts (1988, 2006), Oregon (1989), Minnesota (1992), Tennessee (1992), Vermont (1993), Washington State (1993) and none have worked. The contemporary Massachusetts plan is struggling with unavoidably high premiums, low enrollment, and budget over runs. In 2007 the California legislature recognized these factors and passed SB 840 (Kuehl) which had the potential to be truly innovative and provide cost effective medical care to all our citizens through a single (governmental) payer (financing) system while maintaining the existing network of industrious private providers from physicians to hospitals. This truly creative approach which would have led the nation was vetoed by the Governor. If our representatives had any courage they would revive this bill to truly solve our medical care problems.

Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH