Please, all Californians, call Senator Dianne Feinstein and ask her to support public option. I got this from her website when I was directed by one of her staff on her beliefs about President Obama's Healthcare Reform. Please call her. Thanks, Melanie
What I Support : Senator Dianne Feinstein I basically believe that reform should be incremental and should cover the following:
In order to see that premiums are affordable, I believe that all non-direct healthcare costs (advertising, overhead, profits, and other administrative costs) should be limited and not exceed 10 percent. All premium rate adjustments should be subject to review and approval by a Health Insurance Rate Authority. Bottom line: your health insurance must remain affordable. Your premiums cannot be allowed to double again in the next nine years, as they have in the past nine.
Another way of stabilizing premium affordability is the public option. Depending how the competition is structured, this “option” could compel insurance companies to lower premiums to remain competitive. It remains a viable proposal. The public option should be one of a variety of choices for people who want improved coverage, giving them an option between a private insurance plan and a public one. The public option is simply that—an option. No one will be required to enroll in the public plan. Instead, it would offer consumers an additional choice as they select a health insurance policy. Instead of choosing between policies offered only by private insurance companies, people could choose to buy a public insurance plan. Those that prefer to buy private insurance could still do so.
The purpose of creating a public plan is to increase competition so that premium costs can be controlled. It is very clear that in the current market, private insurance companies do not control the price of premiums. The public option will not replace anyone’s private insurance coverage, but it could prevent future premium increases as private insurance companies lower their prices to compete with a public option. I am also open to considering a non-profit co-operative model, as long as it can accomplish the critical goal of controlling premium costs and spurring competition. Because insurance company profit taking has been so high, it will be very difficult to control premium costs without some non-profit option.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, 56 percent of all dollars that the federal government is projected to spend in 2009 will be spent on entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans’ benefits). If you add interest on the debt, which will account for 5 percent of this year’s federal spending, 61 percent of everything the government spends cannot be controlled. That is because if you qualify for an entitlement, you receive it, regardless of cost. And the interest on the debt must be paid, which further jeopardizes the financial future of the county as the debt grows. Any health reform bill must revise and reform Medicare to eliminate duplication and waste, and to prevent this continuing cost explosion. I cannot vote for a bill that will add a new entitlement, like a subsidy, that will grow over time.
One way of accomplishing Medicare reform is to create an Entitlement Commission to reform and control Medicare and Social Security. This Commission would retain independent actuaries to periodically and regularly review the system and periodically make recommendations to the Congress, which would vote them up or down.
Healthcare Reform “Musts”
These payments are vital to the survival of publicly owned hospitals like San Francisco General Hospital, UCLA/Harbor Medical Center and UC San Diego Medical Center to cover the costs of providing care for the uninsured and undocumented. Many counties, including Los Angeles County, Riverside and San Francisco, are concerned that these payments will be reduced as a cost saving mechanism in the bill, and result in additional County costs. In California, these cuts could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
If extending health care to the millions of currently uninsured is achieved by expanding Medicaid, the new cost to California would be approximately $2.05 billion per year, if the new eligibility level is set at 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($14,404 per individual). Many California counties contribute to the cost of Medicaid, and they do not have extra funding to pay the cost for a program expansion. California still faces an ongoing financial emergency, so this becomes an important consideration. I could not support a bill that pushes additional costs on California state government or its counties.
These concerns and others that develop must be addressed in the Finance Committee bill. I will amend and change this paper as I learn more about the actual bill likely to come before the Senate. I thank you for reading this. Be assured that I want practical health reform to pass, but believe that the package must control the escalating cost of health insurance, increase coverage for those who do not have it, and contain costs.
Thank you,
Dianne Feinstein
She is a tough one to reach on this issue. She's stubborn. She's for reform but she hedges. Please call if you live in California. Or read what she believes and don't call....however, I think she should consider the public option. If you do too, please call.
Thank you!
melanie
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