Other Ideas ‘Worth Considering’ Following Repeal of Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage Law, Opinion Piece States
Voters' rejection of a state law (SB 2) that would have required some employers to provide employees with health insurance and a failed move in the state Legislature to increase taxes to finance health care programs could indicate that it is "time to move in the other direction," columnist Daniel Weintraub writes in Sacramento Bee opinion piece.
Under Proposition 72, a referendum on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot, state residents could vote to uphold or reject SB 2 which would have required some employers to provide health insurance to workers by 2006 or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage (California Healthline, 11/5).
According to Weintraub, "Many of the problems we have today are caused by the disconnect between patients and their doctors and insurance companies." He writes, "With employers and the government calling the shots in so much of health care, the signals consumers normally send to producers about price and quality have been short-circuited in medicine."
Weintraub writes that an idea "well worth pursuing" is a plan proposed by the California Medical Association that "seeks to put individual consumers back in charge of their health care." The plan would require those whose annual incomes do not exceed more than 400% of the poverty level to purchase a health plan that covers "catastrophic" costs and preventive screening tests and would provide tax credits and subsidies for those who earn between 200% and 400% of the federal poverty level to purchase coverage, Weintraub writes (Weintraub, Sacramento Bee, 11/10).