Catholic Healthcare West Ads Advocate Health Care Reform
Catholic Healthcare West began a major advertising campaign urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the California Legislature to rework the state's health care system, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
The ads do not advocate a specific approach to health care reform, but CHW President and CEO Lloyd Dean said that the hospital chain wants to help "make universal access a reality for Californians."
The ads will run through September in national and regional newspapers and magazines including:
- Newsweek;
- New York Times;
- Sacramento Bee;
- San Francisco Chronicle;
- Time;
- U.S. News & World Report; and
- Wall Street Journal.
CHW is a cofounder of the Together for Health Care coalition of California employers, health care providers, insurers and consumer advocacy groups pushing for health care reform this year.
Dean said CHW wanted to run ads separate from the coalition's to "reinforce" its commitment to providing quality, affordable health care.
CHW operates 42 hospitals in California, Arizona and Nevada (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 6/28).
Deciding "who will foot the bill for what's likely to be a $12 billion fix" to California's health care system is the "biggest obstacle" to reform, a San Jose Mercury News editorial states.
The editorial praises Schwarzenegger's proposal to require state residents to have insurance and adds that the governor is "closer to the right funding formula, although there's room for compromise on the amount from each stakeholder group."
The editorial concludes that the governor and Legislature should interpret Californians' concerns about health care -- as cited in a Public Policy Institute of California survey released on Thursday -- "as a mandate to compromise on how to pay for it" (San Jose Mercury News, 6/29).