Officials hoping for overhaul of state healthcare

After the state Assembly approved a $14-billion healthcare reform proposal on Dec. 17 and with the governor vowing to get to work in January on a funding plan that could support the measure, health officials are hopeful that 2008 is the year a deal goes through to overhaul the state’s system.

But while healthcare industry players — from hospitals, physicians and nonprofit providers to lawmakers of both parties — largely agree the current system is broken, area officials are mixed over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s bill that passed the Assembly two weeks ago.

The plan would require all Californians, including the some 6 million Californians — or 20% of the population — who don’t have medical coverage to purchase some sort of health insurance. The taxes that would help fund the measure were not detailed in the bill the Assembly passed, but Schwarzenegger promised to call an emergency session of the Legislature for early January to make cuts to the state’s budget in order to finance the reform.

Under the proposed system, employers would be required to spend between 1% and 6.5% of their payroll on insurance for employees. Those that choose not to provide insurance for their employees would pay the same amount into a state-run system that would, in turn, extend coverage to the worker.

The measure, which would require voter approval on the November 2008 ballot, would also attach a tax to tobacco sales of at least $1.50 a pack.

The governor’s plan would levy a 4% tax on hospitals, and the California Hospital’s Assn. — of which Glendale Memorial Hospital, Verdugo Hills Hospital and Glendale Adventist Medical Center are members — supports the plan because it says the fee would eventually be returned to hospitals.

“The money’s going to be used to draw down matching federal dollars and our agreement with the governor is that all the money that’s put up and all the federal funds will come back to hospitals in the form of higher Medi-Cal reimbursements,” said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospitals Assn.

Currently, California ranks dead last in terms of state reimbursement to hospitals for treating patients covered by their state, Emerson said.

Among the approximately 430 hospitals in the state, all but about 30 would likely get more money back than they paid in taxes under the governor’s proposal, she said.