In Canada, the only way to see a doctor is to call one up and make an appointment. Or walk in to their office. In Britain, the only way you'll get surgery is if you actually need it. And yet State Senator Mark Leno and 44 co-sponsors want to bring this kind of healthcare system to everyone in California! Imagine.
In fact, the California legislature twice approved such a system, in which private providers carry on as independently as always but the public pays their bills directly (rather than indirectly as it does now, through a patchwork quilt of emergency care, programs to bring healthcare to the poorest and the elderly, and subsidies for insurance premiums.) Both times Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. But Senator Leno, a longtime campaigner for single-payer -- a.k.a. "Medicare-for-All" -- has brought the bill back again as SB 810. Last week, the bill fell just two votes shy of passage with a tally of 19-15 in favor. (It needs 21 to pass because it requires more than a simple majority.) Sen. Leno plans to push for another vote under Reconsideration, because several Democratic state senators abstained, but the deadline to win their support is today.
By Dr. Marv Southard
Los Angeles Dept. of Mental Health
Two-year old Brandon wasn't born when voters passed the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) in 2004. But it was young people like Brandon that State Senator Darrell Steinberg had in mind when he spearheaded the groundbreaking initiative known as Proposition 63.
On Wednesday Senator Steinberg saw firsthand how Prop. 63 has made a difference in the lives of California families when he visited Mamas con Bebes, a highly successful program for at-risk teenage mothers funded by the voter-approved initiative.
"It makes my heart happy to see Prop. 63 in action," the Senator said, as he met Brandon and his mom Camille.
Camille had family and anger issues she was unable to handle. She coped by shoplifting. She was eventually arrested. Her family kicked her out and she became homeless. As part of her rehabilitation, Camille was sent to the Mamas con Bebes program, where she learned the patience needed to effectively handle her issues and love her baby.
The same circumstances - including abuse, neglect, and financial hardship -- that lead teen moms to experience time in the juvenile justice system or foster care also put them at risk for mental health issues.
Mamas con Bebes brings together services like counseling, case management, employment, education, and housing, that help teen moms coming from the juvenile justice system or child welfare services address their own mental health and gain the stability they want for their children.
Mamas con Bebes is one of many programs funded by the MHSA that are forever changing the way people with mental health needs access services in California, putting a focus on meeting mental health needs early, rather than waiting for early signs to develop into a crisis.
Currently, 41 mothers and their babies are being served by this intensive early intervention program run by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.
Since the program has been in operation, 95 percent of participating families have found stable housing, 61 percent of the mothers have found stable jobs or are in school, 71 percent have shown improved mother-child attachment, and there's been a 59 percent decrease in depression and anxiety among mothers.
These statistics show that Prop. 63's approach is working. But the real impact goes far beyond numbers - just ask Mom Jasmin, who says the most powerful proof of Prop. 63's success is chance its given families like hers.
"You are the reason why we're all here," Jasmin said to Senator Steinberg. "You have helped me (and other moms) bond with my child."
Proposition 63, passed by California voters in 2004, imposed a 1% tax on personal income of more than $1 million to support community mental health programs.
It is a masterful spin by the self-described not-for-profit Blue Shield of California to announce that it is returning all but two percent of its profits to its customers, as though this were some act of humble generosity. It’s a little like a supermarket announcing that from now on it’s going to give back (almost) all of your change. (It’s actually worse than that, as I’ll explain.)
Health IT is one of the most interesting and timely places where broadband will make the difference. Check out this simple but compelling info graphic from the Internet Innovation Alliance on Health IT. Super interesting stuff.
Insurance Industry Kills Bill That Would Have Forced them to Justify Hikes
by Brian Leubitz
Well, score another win for the insurance industry over consumers:
Feuer: "We've hit a temporary roadblock on the bill. The bill remains on the floor of the Senate, however, and I'm going to work very hard between now and next January to change this dynamic."
Health insurance companies and business groups have fought the measure fiercely. The California Association of Health Plans says the bill would sharply increase costs to the state - without doing anything to lower the cost of health care. (Cap Public Radio)
Of course they say it would increase rates, because they can. Not because they have any data to show that is true. Not because rates in states that have similar measures are higher, but because they can.
However unfortunate, there are enough anti-consumer Democrats to kill the bill. Let's be clear here, this is nothing about being moderate. This is about insurance industry contributions controlling several Democrats in Senate, to the detriment of their constituents.
The bill will be back in next year's session, by then we can hope that these as yet unnamed legislative cowards can be convinced of the error of their ways. We need leaders who will stand up for California consumers, rather than just bending to the will of AHIP.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported this morning on the front page about the landmark insurance reform we expect to be spending the next fifteen months working for. Insurance companies, the legislature and recent court rulings have all turned against consumers, much like they had in 1988, when California voters struck back with the toughest insurance reform in America: Proposition 103.
The California Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on Thursday on AB 52, a bill which will give the California Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, the ability to regulate health insurance premium hikes. This is something that many other states have the power to do, but which California's health insurance companies have fought tooth and nail to prevent. Finally there's a chance they could lose this battle.
Thursday is a crucial vote -- do or die. If the bill is not passed out of the Appropriations Committee it is dead. If it does pass it will go to the Senate floor for a vote (it's already passed the Assembly), which must happen by September 8th.
There are nine committee members, six Democrats and three Republicans. None of the Republicans is expected to vote for the bill, therefore five of the six Democrats' votes are needed.
Currently we have no idea whether all the Democrats on the committee are in favor of the bill or not. Here are their phone numbers -- it's time to call them and find out exactly where they stand and indicate your support, as a California citizen, of the bill.
Senator Christine Kehoe (Chair) -- (916) 651-4039
Senator Elaine Alquist -- (916) 651-4013
Senator Ted W. Lieu -- (916) 651-4028
Senator Fran Pavley -- (916) 651-4023
Senator Curren Price -- (916) 651-4026
Senator Darrell Steinberg -- (916) 651-4006
If you find out the position of any of these Senators on AB 52, please post a comment!
So I disappeared for a full week, right in the middle of what should have been a busy writing schedule, and I have to claim some "personal days" to cover the time we missed here at the blog - but it won't be time entirely wasted.
Instead, I'm going to jump into my own personal life for today's story, and I'm going to do it so that we can stimulate some thinking about where we really need to go to if we ever hope to make some sense out of the crazy way we deliver health care in this country.
Since this appears to be the weekend that a lot of decisions are either going to be made about the future of our "social safety net"...or they wont; we're entirely unsure...let's talk about how it actually works for a lot of us - and how it could work a lot better.
Health insurance companies apparently have no problem taking opposite sides of an issue when it serves their bottom line. When it comes to California law, they hate regulation and will spend any amount of money and credibility to kill it. But when it comes to protecting the profits of insurance brokers at the expense of consumers, insurance companies say (approvingly) that effective state regulation will protect consumers from premium increases. Both positions are public record, but health insurance companies apparently figured no one would ever notice.
Last week, I had a brief chance to speak with Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, and before he and I had to attend to other matters, he briefly stressed the importance of AB-52's pre-increase rate regulation. The first thing that you have to consider, of course, is that AB 52 would greatly expand the Insurance Commissioner's power. Now, Jones has been pushing the bill even when Poizner was calling the shots, so there must be something else.
That something else is the poor division between the Department of Insurance, which Jones heads, and the several other departments in the executive branch that manage health insurance. When it comes down to it, the elected Commissioner, under the current system, actually has relatively little power in that whole process. AB 52, at its core, is a simple regulation that would give the Dept. of Insurance the power to block unreasonable rate increases.
For an industry that has some rather unclean hands, it unsurprisingly fighting this tooth and nail. It is a majority vote measure, so they must rely on a few Democrats to hold up the process.
Tomorrow's vote is the Senate Health Committee, and under normal circumstances, with two co-authors of the bill on the committee, would likely get at least a party line vote. But these are hardly normal circumstances, and many of these Democratic Senators have a insurance money habit that is quite hard to break. nyceve has a diary up at dKos with the names and numbers of the Senators on the Committee, which you can also find below the fold. If I had to prioritize my calls, I would go Hernandez, Alquist, Rubio, de Leon, Wolk, DeSaulnier, in that order. But, if you are a constituent of any of these Senators, please, please call them right away.
There will be more work to go to get this through the Senate, and then pressuring the Governor to sign it. However, this important first step should not be neglected. Get those phone calls in as soon as possible.
Los Angeles Times business columnist Mike Hiltzik offers a stark choice to state legislators in his Wednesday column. What'll it be, has asks: the millions of dollars that the insurance industry pours into your campaigns and treasure chests, or the millions of Californians battered by health premiums that kill the family budget or company benefits account? Plus the 8.2 million Californians with no health insurance at all?
The health insurance industry's lobbying muscle in the California Legislature is legendary. It's the reason that the state's insurance commissioner remains all but toothless to reject outrageous spikes in health insurance premiums and rates, unlike in a majority of other states. So it's not a shock that a new version of a bill to let the state insurance commissioner reject or modify health insurance premiums barely squeaked through the state Assembly's Appropriations Committee late last week with the minimum 9 votes.
Can you hear Blue Cross screaming in the distance? Vermont is about to hit the road toward a real (if modified) single-payer health care--Medicare, but for everyone. Cut out the middlemen, save some money, cover more people.
Washington D.C. -- It's hard to imagine that a briefing on rate regulation and a new Consumer Watchdog report would draw a fascinated audience, but this is DC. Journalists and nonprofit advocates spent 90 minutes Wednesday as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and an expert panel made an impassioned call for getting health insurance companies under control with tough regulation of the rates they can charge. As the senator put it, without mincing a single word:
“While insurance premiums continue to spiral out of control, CEO's paychecks are getting bigger, and insurance companies are spending less on medical care and more on profits. Today, in 17 states including California, state regulators do not have authority to block or modify insurance rate increases that are excessive, unjustified, or discriminatory. In order to protect consumers from skyrocketing insurance premiums, state regulators need this explicit authority to ensure rates are justified. This is why I have introduced the Health Insurance Rate Review Act of 2011, and why I have endorsed state legislation in California, AB 52, to close this loophole.”
by California Labor Federation Communications Organizer Rebecca Greenberg
Most of us are familiar with the popular bumper sticker, “Labor Unions – The folks who brought you the weekend.” And yes, unions did play a pivotal role in the creation of the five-day work week. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the last 170 years, labor unions have done a whole lot more than just establishing the weekend. We’ve effectively served as the first line of defense against the corporations and politicians that seek to exploit working class families. We’ve fought tirelessly for better treatment for workers from all walks of life. And we’ve won some major victories along the way on issues that affect working families every day.
From improved wages to safer working conditions to fairness and equality in the workplace, the policies championed by labor unions benefit all working families, regardless as to whether they themselves belong to a union.
Most of Labor’s major accomplishments have become so engrained in our daily lives that it’s hard to imagine a time without them. In honor of May Day, which is celebrated around the world as International Workers’ Day, here are just a few of the hard-fought victories of the labor movement that we often take for granted:
Child labor laws. Nowadays, the idea of young children working in dangerous and hazardous conditions is uniformly appalling, but as recently as the early 20th century, child labor was all too commonplace. In 1881, the very first American Federation of Labor (AFL) national convention passed a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment, which motivated states to take action and pass child labor policies, and that led up to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act – the first federal law in the nation to prohibit child labor.
Occupational health and safety. Prior to 1970, firefighters, mineworkers, those who work around dangerous chemicals and just about everyone else had absolutely no health and safety protections at work. But all that changed when labor unions successfully urged President Nixon — a conservative Republican — to sign the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the first comprehensive federal legislation that regulates safety in the workplace. OSHA has provided the basis for more reforms in occupational health, including mine safety laws and standards for workers who are exposed to toxic chemicals. Unions continue to work daily to enforce OSHA’s regulations, and also to expand and refine safe protections for all workers.
The eight-hour day. During the industrial revolution of the late 1800’s, workers often toiled for 14 or 16 hours at a stretch with no overtime pay. In May of 1886, a labor strike for the eight-hour day led to the now infamous Haymarket Square riot, where striking workers lost their lives standing up for the core labor ideal of “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will.” Workers and unions fought for decades for this basic right, and the eight-hour day finally became reality for all workers in 1938 with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Here in California, we succeeded in securing a strong daily overtime law, and we continue every day to fight to protect this basic right.
So Arizona Senator Jon Kyl went and did a stupid thing the other day by claiming on the floor of the Senate that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is related to abortions, and that, by God, we need to cut that Federal funding for abortions, and we need to cut all Federal funding for Planned Parenthood-and we need to do it today.
Of course, that 90% claim was total hooey; it turns out that only 3% of Planned Parenthood's work relates to abortions. (The Federal funding for abortions part is, too; the Hyde Amendment made such funding illegal decades ago.)
When confronted, Kyl's office released a statement claiming the Senator's comments were "not intended to be a factual statement".
Sir Rev. Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, decided to have a bit of fun with Kyl, and he challenged his audience to Tweet their own "Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement" about Kyl.
I decided to compose a Tweet of my own...and then another...and before I knew it I had an entire story's worth; that's why, today, we'll be taking a taking a short break from the daily grind to have a bit of fun with a man who truly deserves it: Jon Kyl.
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