SB 840…Headed for passage?
The California Legislature is prepared to pass legislation that will create Universal Health Care in California. The bill was written by Sheila Kuehl (D), the same legislator who wrote the bill that now requires California history text-books to include the contributions of homosexuals. It recently passed the state Senate, 25-15, and stands on the verge of passage in the State Assembly.
The bill takes advice from Canada’s health care system, in which everyone is covered for health care. Yet, in Canada, the quality of health care has taken a dramatic, and frightening turn for the worse. The New York Times:
“The median wait time between a referral by a family doctor and an appointment with a specialist has increased to 8.3 weeks last year from 3.7 weeks in 1993, according to a recent study by The Fraser Institute, a conservative research group. Meanwhile the median wait between appointment with a specialist and treatment has increased to 9.4 weeks from 5.6 weeks over the same period.Average wait times between referral by a family doctor and treatment range from 5.5 weeks for oncology to 40 weeks for orthopedic surgery, according to the study”
I have done my best to extoll the dangers of this system over the past several months. It will, like Canada, diminish the quality of health care in the state, increase bureaucracy, decrease the salary of doctors, and all at the dramatic expense of tax-payers.
The system is being passed off as a “single payer system” to avoid the stigma of “universal”. Nonetheless, it remains a “universal” system, that will include treating illegal immigrants. A “single payer system” may sound great, but like communism, it is implausible and will ultimately fail. The so-called “single-payer” will be the government. Attempting to seperate the financing from the administration is ludicrous. Government control is the logical consequence…and thus, the plan is a “universal coverage”.
I suggest those who care about our state contact their assemblyman and urge them to vote NO on SB 840. Currently vote counters say there are 40 “yea’s” for the bill…only one more is needed to pass this crippling bill.
Cross-posted at The Gentle Cricket
August 15th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
No more money to fix Cali. potholes.
Watch as the world floods into Cali with every type of disease for free treatment.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I contacted my representative:
Please vote against SB 840 - Please no universal or limited-everyone heal care. Everyone already receives health care at the public community hospitals and county facilities - even the illegals. We will never have money to fill the potholes in California roads and we will tax ourselves to death.
August 15th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
how long will it be before the doctors realize that they can make more money and move, how long will it be before California will be needed to bailed out by the federal government, how long before California starts wining about unfunded mandates. Who will pay the bills when all the people that earn money move out of California. California is headed for the sewers.
August 15th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
What a joke! My “representative” is Lonnie Hancock, D-Looney Tunes/Berkeley. I’m sure I’ll get a really fast response from her.
I have Kaiser through my job. I like Kaiser. I will not change to another system. I am prepared to sue to maintain this, if necessary.
I have no intention of having the state tell me who can insure me and who can’t.
Stop this crap now! Call or email Arnold and tell him to prepare to veto this nonsense when it hits his desk. That’s what we elected him for.
August 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Well, Scott, the law will criminalize private insurance. That’s right, Kaizer will no longer be allowed to operate any insurance business in the state. Too bad.
That being said, a recent decision in Canada found such a mandate unconstitutional. Suing to prevent this ridiculous law may be an option.
August 16th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
If you think there is nothing wrong with health care in this country, you haven’t had to use it much. If you think there isn’t anything wrong, talk to a business owner who has to pay insurance premiums for his employees. If you think our current health care woes are the fault of ‘liberals’ you haven’t been paying attention to how health care operates in this country for the last 20-30 years. I’m not saying what Canada has is great, nor is what this law is attempting is great. I’m saying what we have isn’t great either and we really ought to be able to do much much better. Of course, there’s way too much money flowing from the health and pharma industries to your representatives for that to ever happen.
August 16th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
BillyJoeJimBob -
My personal experience with my private insurance has been excellent. Nonetheless, I realize that there is a clear, discernable problem that needs to be fixed. My ire of this legislation should not be taken as support of the insurance industry. Yet, I think that this legislation will only exacerbate the problems facing business. Instead of paying (optional) exhorbitant premiums, they - and their employees - will be paying ever increasing exhorbitant taxes.
It sounds as though we are in agreement that this “out of the frying pan into the fire” approach is a bad idea.
August 16th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Can someone highlight this blog and leave it at the top of the blog? This is a major current issue for Cali. It should not be lost in the muddle of other recent postings.
Thank you and great job here.
August 16th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Gentle Cricket, I think we are in agreement on this point.
Most of the alternatives that seem to make it to the bill stage are usually woefully bad.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
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August 17th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Two words, sufficient to condemn the bill: Shiela Kuehl.