• The uninsured live sicker, die younger, and are one emergency away from financial ruin.
• The uninsured are not so by choice: Over 80% of the uninsured are in working families; They are not offered employer-based health coverage, are not eligible for public programs, and find purchasing individual coverage unaffordable or unavailable.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE: Do you support establishing a universal health care system in California? Do you support SB 840?

• SB 840 (Kuehl), the California Health Insurance Reliability Action (CHIRA), would create a statewide, cost-effective universal health care system that is privately delivered and publicly financed, similar to a comprehensive Medicare system for all Californians.
• CHIRA will eliminate waste in the health care system by consolidating the functions of many insurance companies into a comprehensive insurance plan, saving the state and consumers billions of dollars each year.
• It would be funded by consolidating federal, state and county funds already being spent on health care, and through premiums paid through our income tax that will replace premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket payments and co-pays we now pay.

EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY: Do you support setting a standard for health benefits on the job, like the minimum wage does for pay? Would you support requiring employers to pay for coverage for their workers and their families?

• Most Californians—over 18 million—get health coverage through their employer, or that of a family member. Yet many employers are shifting the cost of premiums onto workers, scaling back benefits, or dropping it altogether.
• When some employers provide little or no health benefits to their workers, they put pressure on competitors to scale back their health coverage, creating spiral that threatens to unravel our health care system. These employers also shift costs onto taxpayers, who fund crucial public hospitals and public insurance programs.
• Despite an $18 million campaign against it, half of California voters supported Proposition 72, which would have expanded on-the-job coverage to over one million Californians, and provided security for those with such coverage.
• See http://www.health-access.org/expanding/future.htm for more info.

COVERING ALL CHILDREN: Would you support the policy of covering *all* of California ’s children, and raising the revenues to fund such a goal?

• Even though 90% of California children have health coverage, nearly 1 million California children are uninsured.
• Four out of five voters say they support “ensuring that every child in California has health insurance.”
• Studies show that investment in comprehensive health insurance for children is cost-effective, promoting access to early, less costly preventive care and treatment: For every dollar spent on childhood immunizations, we save over $13 in higher cost care later on.
• Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a children’s coverage bill on the grounds that we can’t afford it, but did not suggest a way to raise the revenues to pay for it.
• See http://www.100percentcampaign.org/priorities/healthy-kids-main.htm for more info.

PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS: Would you support allowing the state to use its purchasing power to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies for cheaper prescription drugs for uninsured and underinsured Californians?

• The Medicare Modernization Act explicitly forbade the federal government from negotiating prices directly with drug companies, the way the Veterans Administration and every other industrialized country does, yielding much lower prices.
• As a result, seniors using the new Medicare drug discount cards are paying 58% more for their drugs than they would through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
• Last year, the drug industry, along with Governor Schwarzenegger, opposed Prop 79, that would have allowed the state of California to use its purchasing power to negotiate discounts on behalf of those without comprehensive prescription drug coverage.

HIGH DEDUCTIBLE PLANS: Do you support policies to expand the use of high deductible plans and Health Savings Accounts?

• President Bush has made Health Savings Accounts the centerpiece of his health care “plan,” claiming that they will increase consumer choice and reduce prices.
• HSAs would use tax dollars to push more people into being “underinsured” in high-deductible plans, where more of the cost and burden is shifted from the employer and insurer to the individual patient and family.
• HSAs will do nothing to expand coverage since 2/3 of the uninsured make too little to owe taxes, but it will drain resources from public programs that do provide coverage.
• Even the healthy and wealthy would find the plans not to be worth it when they need care, because age, serious illness or accident.

Health Access California is the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition of over 200 organizations representing labor, children, seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants, communities of color, health professionals and people of faith. Founded in 1987, Health Access California advocates and wins reforms to expand access to quality, affordable health care for all Californians. 

Please let us know what response you get from candidates! To let us know, or for more info , contact Health Access: In Northern CA : Jessica Rothhaar, 510-873-8787 ext. 107 or jessicar@health-access.org. In Southern CA : Norma Martinez-HoSang, 213-748-5287, or nmartinez@health-access.org.