Viewpoints: A Single-Payer System Is Not The Sensible, Responsible Way Forward
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Sacramento Bee:
As California Debates Single-Payer Health Care, Consider How Much Taxes Would Rise
Under a single-payer system, health care would be financed through taxing people to support a government-run program rather than through having them or their employers pay for private health insurance coverage. Doing that would require a massive tax increase on California families along with huge pay cuts for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals. And, it would spell the end of the employer-sponsored insurance that half the state relies on and values. (Jim Wunderman, 5/3)
Los Angeles Times:
GOP Hard-Liners Resist Spreading The Costs Of Healthcare To The Healthy
I've been lucky. I was born a healthy baby. Other than childhood rounds of measles and chicken pox and annoying yearly bouts with springtime pollen, I’ve enjoyed a disease-free life. So far, no hereditary predispositions toward any awful affliction have shown up. Other than a weakness for doughnuts and cheeseburgers, I eat pretty well and haven’t gotten fat. I exercise sporadically, but stay in reasonably good shape. Occasionally I drink enough to regret it in the morning, but I’ve never smoked or abused drugs. (David Horsey, 5/3)
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)
Los Angeles Times:
Using Abortion As An Excuse To Deny Californians Subsidized Healthcare Is Unnecessary And Cruel
In their zeal to restrict abortion, House Republicans could once again put the federal government on a collision course with California over the rights the state guarantees its residents. The GOP leadership’s healthcare bill, which is headed for a crucial vote this week, would replace the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies with new tax credits available to a broader range of Americans. But it would flatly bar the credits from being spent on any policy that covers abortions. (5/4)
Los Angeles Times:
California's Water Crisis Is Dangerous, Just Like Flint's. Will The State Clean It Up Once And For All?
The lead-poisoned drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., has gotten all the headlines, but California has a water contamination problem that endangers far more people, and it has existed for decades. State officials knew for a generation that many Californians lack access to clean, safe drinking water, yet, disgracefully, they did not begin to address the issue until five years ago. The state Legislature is now poised to chalk up a historic achievement as it negotiates Senate Bill 623, which would establish a fund to subsidize adequate water treatment for most of the roughly 1 million Californians who still need it. It’s the last step in enabling small, impoverished water systems throughout the state to deliver clean water to their customers. (Jacques Leslie, 5/4)
Sacramento Bee:
Making School Lunches Unhealthy Again
So starting in the fall, low-fat chocolate milk and more white bread will be on the menu, and high-salt food can stay. But when we have a crisis of diabetes and childhood obesity, why backslide on junk food? The changes are opposed by many health advocacy groups and backed by corporations that sell food to schools. The big argument of Perdue and Roberts is that kids won’t eat the more nutritious food, and it’s being thrown out. Sure, healthy items need to more appetizing, but by that logic, we should just give kids burgers and fries every day. (5/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Crowdfunding For Medical Expenses Is Rising — When It Should Be Eradicated
It should be obvious as a fundamental principle that in a civilized country, crowdfunding for direct medical expenses should be utterly unnecessary. You get sick or injured, your medical care should be covered by the community at large. Yet public appeals by families or individuals for help paying basic medical bills seem to be on the rise in the United States. Crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe.com report that medical expenses rank as their largest single category of appeals; other sites such as HelpHopeLive have sprung up specifically for medical expense appeals. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/28)
Los Angeles Times:
It Was A Perfect California Beach Day...Except For All The Plastic Pollution
Unlike a littered plastic bag, which may fill with water and sink to the bottom of the sea, plastic foam is buoyant and breaks down into smaller and smaller bite-sized pieces. Also, plastic foam can absorb other chemicals present in the ocean. This poses a danger to marine life and sea birds that eat the “microplastic” pieces in the water and on the shore, along with whatever pollutants they contain. (Mariel Garza, 5/2)