November 5, 2002
 
Dear Mr Ramirez,
 
The answer is pretty straight forward.  The State of California has studied the problem of high quality access to health care in the last year.  I am not making up these solutions.

The Health Care Options Project sponsored by the State of California has proposed various ways to tackle the health care crisis. The most far-reaching of the proposals would solve our health care crisis including those in the rural areas. The single payer proposals studied by the state would insure everyone in the state and improve everyone's health care. The proposals include long term care and prescription drugs. The State could efficiently plan where to spend our health care dollars so that all of California was well served. And Californians would save 8 billion dollars a year. 
How can this be?  It is simple.  We would consolidate the paying of medical bills and budgeting from 300 private insurance programs and 69 government safety net programs including Medicare and MediCal into one simple agency governed by the voters of California. The State of California has determined that this one administrative consolidation would save enough money to insure us all with better health care and save Californians 8 billion dollars in the first year.  Last year, Californians spent 151 billion dollars on health care. About half of the money is government funds and half is private money paid to private companies by employers or private citizens.  And the private health plans are really not in business to take care of sick people. Ironically, the privately run health care insurers try to avoid the sick. A health insurance company makes money by insuring healthy people and avoiding the sick. All the various current paying mechanisms are a nightmare for doctors and hospitals. There are 1 2/3 billing clerks for every doctor in the state.  So with a single payer plan we have one payer of the bills, not the current hundreds with each having their own duplicative bureaucracy. 

The Government Accounting Office has studied this, the Congressional Budgeting Office has studied this and many states have studied this.  The studies always conclude that having a single payer health care system is cheaper and provides better health care.

So why don't politicians jump at this solution?  They do not jump at it because the same profiteers who gain from the current mess will oppose candidates who want a better system.  But that is not the position of the Green Party. We want a health care system where everyone is covered whether they live in a rural area or inner city. 

It is outrageous that America spends 2 to 3 to 4 times as much money as other industrialized nations who have universal health care, yet we have 42 million Americans who have no health insurance. 

The Health Care Options Project can be viewed at www.healthcareoptions.ca.gov. For more detailed information, contact my health care advisor, Don Bechler at 415-695-7891
 
Peter Camejo