Westly: Compromise Needed To Address Health Care
"While California's health care problems are complicated, they aren't insoluble," Controller Steve Westly writes in a San Jose Mercury News opinion piece. The state must reduce increasing health care costs and ensure that all residents have access to adequate health care, according to Westly.
The Legislature in recent years has not reformed the health care system because there is too much focus on ideology and not enough on common sense, Westly writes. Recognizing that there is not one "cure-all" solution, Westly proposes a disease management program as one component of a possible solution that will "move us in the right direction."
According to Westly, a disease management program will provide patients with education information on applicable medical conditions and support access to a health coach to design a medical care plan. Westly writes that this combination has been shown to control health care costs by reducing the need for future care.
He concludes, "It's time for smarter minds in California to come together and help tackle this health care crisis" (Westly, San Jose Mercury News, 11/29).