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We need real healthcare reform in California, not just another backroom deal that’s bad for California patients.  Current plans being pushed by Governor Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez do little to resolve our health care crisis.  Both plans will only serve to enrich the insurance industry at the expense of California patients.  As a Registered Nurse, I know that the insurance corporations are the biggest problem we face in the delivery of healthcare today.  They make immense profits and actively work to deny care to my patients.  These profits are then turned in campaign contributions for politicians like Schwarzenegger and Nunez.  The good news is that California has another choice—a system of guaranteed, single-payer healthcare inspired by the models succeeding in every other industrialized nation in the world.  Please join the California Nurses Association in working to block the backroom healthcare deal and bringing our state the genuine healthcare reform we desperately need.

TALKING POINTS: Healthcare in California

• Number of uninsured in California – 6.6 million (Los Angeles Times, Oct. 6, 2005). The number of uninsured Californians was expected to grow by 20% from 2005-2010 (UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education study, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2005)
• Three-fourths of the uninsured non-elderly Californians are in working families. Over 80% of uninsured employees have no access to employment based insurance because they did not work for an employer who offered benefits or were not eligible for benefits from their employer (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, February, 2005
• Almost 5 million of California’s uninsured make less than 300% of federal poverty level, less than $60,000 for a family of four (2003). Health coverage typical cost, $4,000 per individual, $10,000 to $12,000 per family, or about half what a full-time worker at minimum wage earns in a year. Paying up to $12,000 a year for health insurance would force many to make serious cuts in other areas, such as housing or food (Health Access, Nov. 28, 2006)
• California ranks 46th in the nation in the percentage of uninsured, 41st in the percentage of children who are fully immunized, and 41st in the per capita number of cases of infectious disease, according to 2006 edition of “America’s Health Rankings” complied by the United Health Foundation.
• About 34% of spending on health care in California goes to administrative costs, according to a study by the Institute of Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco. Of that figure, 21% is spent on private insurance billing-related tasks including health plan profits, at an annual cost of $26 billion, and 13% on other non-billing administrative tasks (Health Affairs, November/December 2005) 
• 52% of Californians get their health insurance from an employer; 29% from public programs (Medicare, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families; 14% are uninsured; 5% purchase as individuals, as of 2003 data (Health Access, Nov. 28, 2006)
• From 2000 to 2004, the overall percentage of adults with employer-based coverage declined from 61% to 58%. The percentage of California full-time workers making $9-$11 an hour with employer based coverage dropped from more than 59% to 46%, compared to a national decline from 64% to 58% (UC Berkeley Labor Research and Education study, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2005)
• Some California insurers sell policies that require members to go to Mexico for care where costs are 40% lower. Some 160,000 have cross-border coverage, mainly Mexicans legally employed in the U.S. in agriculture, hotels, retail, local government. Monthly premiums $100 for individuals, $350 for families in Blue Shield “Access Baja” plan. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 25, 2005)
• The average California family of four with private insurance pays $1,186 more in premiums to subsidize the care of the uninsured. (Study, New American Foundation, December, 2006)
• Health insurance premiums in California rose 61% from 2000 to 2004. California families pay $1,500 more per year than the rest of the country for PPOs (preferred provider organizations), according to a 2005 report by (then) Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (Oakland Tribune, Aug. 4, 2005)
• In California, a February 2005 Lewin Group study found that a single-payer plan would safe $344 billion over 10 years even while providing coverage to all state residents (PNHP)