CALIFORNIA FLIRTS WITH SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE

From the San Francisco Chronicle via AlterNet:

There is, however, another proposal on the table – a single-payer health system – that would overhaul employer-based health care. SB921, authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would create a state health insurance plan in order to provide universal health care for Californians.

In Kuehl's words, "You would have a card, just like your health (plan) card now, but you could walk into any hospital, any pharmacy, any doctor's office, any dentist, and they would know you're covered."

"But isn't this socialized medicine?" worried readers have asked me. No, it's like Medicare. The state would simply finance and administer health-care reimbursements as a private insurer does now; it would not own the health facilities or employ the medical staff. Patients, not the government, would choose their own health providers.

But how can we afford this? Oddly enough, a single-payer plan could prove less expensive than our so-called health-care system.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that single payer is the way to go. But how do you defeat the insurance companies, who will surely fight such a move tooth and nail? I have no idea, but the political ball has got to start rolling somewhere, and California is a good place to begin.

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