Some of our state's elected officials and others on the Ebenezer Scrooge side of health care reform suggest that Gov. Schwarzenegger's holiday plans to wrap up a health care package with a bow and place it under the tree for all Californians may not be affordable. They urge caution and more delay, but let's not be so quick to forget Tiny Tim in this modern-day "Christmas Carol."
As everyone remembers from Charles Dickens' classic story, Tiny Tim was a disabled and very sick young boy, hovering near death. In the modern-day version, Tim's illness can be cured with affordable health care coverage, but his father, Bob Cratchit, works for Scrooge, a small California employer who cannot afford health care for his employees.
When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, we see how sick our current health care system has become - unaffordable or unavailable to millions of Californians. This is the broken system we have a chance to fix. How sad it would be if all that the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come could show us are the results of a "go-slow, incremental" approach that saves Tiny Tim, but leaves millions of others behind. There are many who still say that the door for better health care should be provided solely for children, while the parents of those kids would still be locked out in the cold. Tiny Tim is temporarily saved, but his father is one health care crisis away from economic disaster for him and his family. If that is our fate, it should surely scare the dickens out of all of us.
That is why the Silicon Valley Leadership Group stands with Republican Schwarzenegger and Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez for this historic opportunity for meaningful, comprehensive health care reform. There are many reasons why this plan has earned our support:
• It has been carefully crafted: This legislation didn't materialize like a ghost overnight. Rather, the governor thoughtfully crisscrossed California for more than a year seeking insights and counsel from thousands of Californians. He considered legislation and legislative language from both sides of the aisle. At the end of the Legislature's normal session, he called lawmakers back into special session to focus attention on this important issue. He published his own specific proposal, based on sound principles, to be debated and discussed for months. The bill that passed the Assembly on Monday, AB1x, is the product of that work.
• It emphasizes shared responsibility: The nightmare of many employers and employees has been that some would pay while others would not. From the beginning, a core principle for sensible reform has been a model of "shared responsibility." We all benefit from comprehensive health care reform. When we all prosper, we must all participate. This proposal spells out the responsibility of employers, hospitals, individuals and insurance companies. It emphasizes responsibility while still offering flexibility, by retaining an employer's ability to purchase employer-sponsored benefits that meet its needs and those of its workers. The state's anticipated $10.1 billion price tag on the legislation, after federal funding of $4.6 billion, is arguably a lower cost over time than the cost of inaction and further delay.
• It covers all Californians: One of every five people we pass on the street has no health care insurance whatsoever. A significant number are underinsured. Equally troubling, many working families are one crisis or emergency room visit from bankruptcy. This plan provides every Californian with the opportunity for coverage. When uninsured families stop using the emergency room as a "first resort" - the most expensive form of health care - then the hidden tax, roughly $1,900 per family, each Californian is paying to cover the uninsured can be eliminated and returned to our wallets.
• It emphasizes wellness rather than illness: This plan promotes diet, nutrition, prevention and exercise. Our current system spends billions treating the sick, rather than investing millions in keeping us healthy. Health insurance companies will be required to offer health rewards and incentive programs for employees as part of what they offer to their employers. This finally provides each of us with incentives to take better care of ourselves by reducing obesity, diabetes and smoking - three killers that are crippling California families and our economy.
If the state Senate acts quickly to pass the governor's package, the Scrooges among us will see the path to reform. And voters will have their chance to weigh in on the financing portion of the plan next November. Then we will all be able to join Tiny Tim as he recites his new closing line: "God bless us, every one. Not just some."
