To examine this problem and explore solutions, the Yolo County chapter of Health Care for All has organized a seminar and forum about the Impact of the health insurance crisis on local government. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Community Chambers at Davis City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd.
Speakers will include Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada, Davis City Councilman Don Saylor and Davis Board of Education member Sheila Allen.
Cindy Young, state health care coordinator of the California School Employees Association, will discuss the potential for "single payer" health insurance. Under this proposal, everyone would pay into a government-run health insurance program rather than existing health insurance companies. Patients would still be able to see the doctor of their choice.
Panel discussion as well as questions and responses from the audience will follow the presentations. Dan Braunstein, chairman of the Yolo County chapter of Health Care for All, will serve as moderator. The 34-member group is part of the nonprofit Health Care for All — California with 1,000 members statewide. The group supports a single-payer health insurance system, "like Medicare for all," Braunstein said. "We feel everybody, including businesses … are being severely impacted by the high cost of health care premiums," Braunstein said.
Yolo County
The cost for Yolo County to provide health benefits for its employees jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2005, 9.8 percent from 2005 to 2006 and 11.8 percent from 2006 to 2007.
"The 2008 rates will be announced soon," Yamada said. "Unfortunately, I expect the medical inflation trend to continue." The county spends about $12.2 million annually in health insurance contributions for its current and retired workers. About 1,200 of the county's 1,550 full-time employees are enrolled in county health insurance plans, along with 450 retired workers.
Yamada said the county has not done an analysis of cost-savings under a potential single-payer, universal system, but "we would expect to save at least the amount we are paying in indigent care, which is significant." Yamada explained that Yolo County contributes an amount equal to 90 percent of the lowest cost health plan available through CalPERS. Currently, that least expensive plan is offered by Western Health Advantage. The county's current monthly contributions are: $356 for a single enrollee, $712 if one dependent is added and $926 for a family.
The premiums paid by employees vary widely. "I am deeply concerned, both for the county and for the well-being of our employees and their families," Yamada said. "As the cost of health care continues to rise as a percentage of the county budget as well as a family's budget, preserving benefits and access to quality care are becoming increasingly difficult." Yamada said she supports a single-payer universal health insurance system that would make insurance streamlined and affordable yet still allow patients to choose their doctors. "We live in the richest nation in the world, yet have 47 million people uninsured nationally and nearly 7 million in California. I find that disgraceful," Yamada said.
City costs
The city pays about $4 million per year in health insurance contributions for current and retired workers. Out of 427 full-time workers, 286 have signed up for health insurance through the city, in addition to 149 retirees who continue to receive health benefits until age 60. The cost has increased by 60 percent from the 2003-04 fiscal year when the city paid $2.5 million. The number of city workers increased by less than 5 percent during that time.
In addition to the city's direct health insurance costs, workers who are covered by a spouse's plan or elect to buy their own insurance may receive a cash payment in lieu of health benefits from the city. That cost for 156 employees totaled $3 million this year, up from $2 million in 2003-04. "We take our responsibility to provide a range of health care coverage very seriously," Saylor said. "I think that there's a lot of inefficiency in the health care system that we have today and we need to take a look at reducing that inefficiency. "I'm pretty interested as an individual as to how a single-payer plan might work."
School district
Allen, who serves on the Davis school board, agrees that a change is needed.
"I've known for a long time that the health care system is broken from a financial standpoint," said Allen, who has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years. She works for the Yolo County Health Department as an HIV/AIDS surveillance nurse and childhood lead poisoning prevention coordinator.
Allen said rising costs have been a challenge for the school district.
"Historically and even now, the ability of the district to keep up with health care costs has not been very good for our employees," Allen said. The total annual cost of health insurance plans offered through the district — for one employee — is $5,174 for Kaiser and $5,462 for PERS Choice PPO. Kaiser costs have increased 66 percent since 2003 while the PERS plan shot up 54 percent during the same time period. The district's share of those costs, which was not released, is based on a complex formula and negotiations with employee unions.
Allen said in the past, unions have made salary increases a priority over health benefits because many employees are covered by their spouse's health insurance plan. However, she said, that attitude is changing and health benefits are becoming more important to the employees. Allen said she's pleased to see a growing interest in a single-payer insurance system, which would be more efficient than the many existing programs that try to reach the uninsured.
Legislation
There are four bills in the state Legislature, including the governor's proposal, to change the health insurance system in California. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, has re-introduced Senate Bill 840, after it was approved by legislators but vetoed by the governor last year. According to the Associated Press, the legislation would create a new state agency that would negotiate rates with health care providers and pay health care costs for California's approximately 37 million residents.
The plan would be financed partly with the funds state and federal governments would spend anyway on health care programs and partly with new taxes on employers, employees and investors that would replace the health care payments they make now.
The governor's proposal would require all Californians to obtain health coverage, either through their jobs, by buying it on their own or, if they qualify, through a government health-care program. Employers with 10 or more workers would have to offer their employees health insurance or pay an amount equal to 4 percent of their payrolll into a state health care fund.
Democrat and Republican leaders in both houses have introduced their own health care proposals, raising the possibility of a compromise that would at least extend coverage to some of the uninsured.
— On the Net: healthcareforall.org
— Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043. The Associated Press contributed to this article. |
