Opinion Pieces Discount Single-Payer Legislation
Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, and the editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News on Friday weighed in on health care reform efforts in California. Summaries appear below.
- Van Gorder, San Diego Union-Tribune: "To prevent the further loss of hospitals and emergency rooms, any solution to our health care crisis must ... [a]ddress the uninsured problem," increase Medi-Cal funding and help hospitals cover the cost of compliance with state seismic safety rules and other "unfunded mandates," Van Gorder writes in a Union-Tribune opinion piece. Van Gorder calls for a "public-private solution" to California's health care problems, adding that "individual patients should be given some level of control and responsibility for their own health care" (Van Gorder, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/2).
- San Jose Mercury News: The reintroduction of legislation by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) to create a single-payer, state-run health insurance system in California could push some of her supporters "to hinder the first real effort to provide health care to millions of Californians," a Mercury News editorial states, adding that creating a single-payer system should be left to the federal government. In the meantime, the editorial calls on California lawmakers to "keep their focus on the bipartisan approach that stands the best chance of gaining approval and improving the health of all Californians" (San Jose Mercury News, 3/2).