January 5, 2007

Health coverage initiatives will help cover costs of care

By Jim Beall
District 24 Assemblymember

Everyone is directly or indirectly struggling with the skyrocketing costs of health care. Every taxpayer, wage earner, family and business operation is paying more for less as health care costs continue to escalate out of control.

Last year, as a chair of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, I called on health care experts and community and business leaders to once again come together in a public-private partnership to help qualify the uninsured residents of this county with a health plan. The time had come for us to find a health care alternative for the 200,000 county residents who did not have health insurance for some period of time in the last year.

Our track record proves we can establish lofty goals and improve health care outcomes for our county residents. Santa Clara County made history by being the first in the nation to guarantee all children have access to decent and comprehensive health care coverage. Since launching the Children’s Health Initiative six years ago, over 125,000 children have been enrolled in some type of health care plan.

We can do better.

More than 6 million Californians do not have any health care coverage. These include the people who work in the high-tech industry, who clean our offices, who take care of our children and prepare our meals. In Santa Clara County, over 150,000 residents between the ages of 19 and 64 have no health care plan at all. Counties need financial help providing essential medical care to the thousands of uninsured who walk through their emergency room doors annually. The cost to cover the uninsured is staggering. Last year alone, it cost the Santa Clara County over $114 million to provide essential services for our uninsured residents.

As Assembly District 24’s newly elected legislator, I intend to work with my colleagues to continue to make the uninsured a top priority.

On Dec. 4, 2006, I introduced a bill, AB 12, which would expand health care coverage to uninsured working adults in California. If passed, the program would offer eligible small businesses and independent contractors the option to buy into a health coverage plan at an affordable premium. Compre-hensive benefits would be provided, including inpatient, outpatient, emergency services and prescription drug benefits. Helping small businesses and independent contractors find affordable health care plans for their employees will help us keep jobs here in the Silicon Valley and increase economic development.

This proposal is one part of an overall health care package being considered by the State Legislature this year. The speaker of the assembly, Fabian Nunez, unveiled his fair share health care proposal in late December and the governor plans to announce his proposal in January. The speaker’s proposal places a high priority on covering all children, regardless of their parents’ connection to the workplace, contains specific health care cost containment strategies and looks for innovative methods to reduce duplicative cost in the system.

As residents and consumers impatiently wait for more comprehensive and universal health care reform, we must act now to expand health care coverage for our struggling uninsured population. Implementing the Adult Health Care Coverage Expansion Program and the speaker’s proposal would go a long way toward solving our health care crisis. We must not sit quietly as the expense of treating the uninsured, often late in their diagnosis, costs human lives and drains our counties financial resources.

Jim Beall has served as the 2006 chair of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Since June 2000, he has also been the chair of the Santa Clara County Family Health Plan. Beall was sworn in as a state assemblymember on Dec. 4.

The public is invited to join Assemblymember Jim Beall and Assemblymember Joe Coto for an open house event at their new district offices on Friday, Jan. 19 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Address: 100 Paseo de San Antonio, Suite 300 and Suite 319, San Jose, 95113.