Viewpoints: Some Ideas In GOP’s Health Plan Are Not Far Removed From Democrats’
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
Where House Republicans And Democrats Might Actually Agree On Preexisting Conditions
House Republicans kicked up a healthcare furor by proposing to let states remove the ironclad protections in Obamacare for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions. But their approach to the issue is, on one level, not far removed from what progressives have long advocated. Stick with me here, it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. No, the Republicans’ repeal-and-replace bill, the American Health Care Act, does not call for a single-payer system, universal coverage or anything so warm and fuzzy. What it does propose, however, is to dun federal taxpayers to make sure the sickest and riskiest Americans can obtain coverage. (Jon Healey, 5/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Two GOP Governors Already Are Thinking Of Killing Protections For Preexisting Conditions In Their States
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus tried to reassure America over the weekend that the most horrific provisions of the Republican Obamacare repeal bill were so horrific that no politicians in their right mind would even contemplate implementing them. The issue is protection for people with preexisting medical conditions. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers aren’t allowed to charge those customers more for coverage just because of their health profile. The repeal bill passed by House Republicans last week allows states to obtain waivers to cut that safeguard way back, potentially allowing insurers to charge sky-high surcharges to make coverage unaffordable for those patients. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/8)
Orange County Register:
Republicans Should Be Ashamed For Trading Health Care For A Tax Break For The Rich
The House Republicans who passed the American Health Care Act and repealed the Affordable Care Act should be ashamed. They passed a major tax cut for the rich at the expense of all of the rest of us. People will suffer and die if this terrible bill goes into law. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 5/11)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
A Health Care Idea: Start From Scratch, Look To Other Nations
The state has hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities and in unfunded infrastructure needs and among the nation’s highest taxes. Even so, a state Senate committee has already given its blessing to a bill creating a state single-player health care system that could double the size of the state budget — or worse. But the measure co-authored by state Sens. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, does have an upside: It may prompt people to consider the idea that when it comes to health care, Americans need dramatic change. (5/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Senate Republicans Couldn't Bother To Find A Single Woman To Help Overhaul Health Care
I know there aren’t that many women in the U.S. Senate. Just 21 of the 100 U.S. senators are female, and probably some of them had other plans. But still, couldn’t Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) find one woman to join the 13 men on his Obamacare overhaul posse? Just one? True, most of the women in the Senate are Democrats and would probably be annoying about pap smears, mammograms and Planned Parenthood. They might also point out that the [Republicans'] plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will invariably affect women. Women have a higher rate of poverty than men. (Mariel Garza, 5/9)
San Francisco Chronicle:
GOP Health Plan’s Assault On Choice
Of all the insidious elements of the House Republican health care plan — and the list is long indeed — one takes particular aim at California and New York. It would deny federal tax credits to help modest-income individuals buy health insurance in any state that requires insurers to cover elective abortions. Exactly two states fit into that category: California and New York. (5/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Another Little-Mentioned Benefit Of Obamacare: It Has Reduced Medical Bankruptcies
Here’s another benefit of the Affordable Care Act you may not have read much about, but is profoundly threatened by the Republican repeal effort: It has reduced the tide of healthcare-related personal bankruptcies. That’s the finding of a recent survey published by Consumer Reports, based on a poll of 2,000 consumers conducted this year and statistics showing that personal bankruptcy filings have fallen from more than 1.5 million in 2010 to 770,846 last year. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/9)
Orange County Register:
Governor’s Revised Budget Provides Relief From Potential County Service Cuts
A program to provide in-home care for elderly and disabled Californians is at the center of a budget issue that nearly threatened to reduce health and law enforcement services across the state, including here in Orange County. The In-Home Supportive Services Program, or IHSS, allows elderly and disabled low-income residents to stay in their homes by providing pay for their in-home caregivers. (Jennifer Muir Beuthin, 5/12)
Orange County Register:
State Must Not Siphon Off Developmental Services Funding
An idea floating around the Capitol deserves the full support of legislators and the governor: that savings from the upcoming closures of California’s three remaining developmental centers should be used to sustain developmental services, and not be swept into the state’s general fund. ... Developmental funding should continue to rise within each year’s state budget, as does state support for other priorities. And a good way to give that funding the shot in the arm that it needs is simply not to siphon off the operational savings that will result from closing the centers. (5/10)
Orange County Register:
Start State Secondary Schools Later In The Morning For Better Student Health
A new bill requiring later secondary school start times in California by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, might seem at first blush to be a case of Sacramento overreach. But Portantino — who during his time in the Assembly made creative bills on health care a hallmark of his terms, including one establishing an umbilical blood cord collection program key to future medical advances — comes at this from a strictly biological position. (5/9)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Yes On E: Keeping Sonoma’s Hospital Healthy
Hospitals in 80 rural communities across the country have shut their doors since 2010, and almost 700 others are reported to be teetering on the edge. The most common issue, of course, is finances. In its most recent brush with insolvency, Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol apparently came within a day or two of ceasing operations. The longtime operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital announced plans to leave last summer, and the Petaluma health care district is still trying to work out a deal with a new management company. (5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
How California Should Spend Its Cigarette Tax
Between Congress and Sacramento, it is now clear that the capacity to play politics with health insurance is boundless. Not so the resilience of those who most need coverage. A week-and-a-half ago – as Washington plotted another cruel shot at the Affordable Care Act and state lawmakers fought over a cigarette tax windfall – a clinic that for 30 years had been a refuge for Sacramento-area women quietly closed, thanks to a scenario that is all too familiar to Medi-Cal providers. (5/5)