Here in California, and elsewhere in the country, millions of Americans
are without health insurance. The reason why is because of
skyrocketing insurance premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket
expenses. Not to mention the fact that the insurance companies will
deny coverage for many claims, stating that a specific procedure is
medically unnecessary, or is experimental.Their business model is
to deny as many claims as they can. This is in order to generate
huge profits at the expense of the patient.
The process for fighting a claim denial is slow and painstaking.
First, the patient must file a grievancewith their insurance provider
then they must allow thirty days to pass before filing for an
independent review with the California Department of Managed
Healthcare. In many instance this is a matter of life and death, even
though 60% to 80% of all claim denials are eventually overturned,
as is reported by the California Nurses Association.
Healthcare costs are responsible for 65% of all bankruptcies in the
United States, and 75% of those bankruptcies are for people that
do have health insurance. In no other industrialized country do
people go bankrupt because of healthcare costs. The United States
stands alone in this regard.
The United States has been rated as having the worst healthcare
system amongst other developed nations. Here in this country, we
spend the most on healthcare, and have the worst outcomes. Roughly,
30% of every healthcare dollar is wasted on administrative costs,
advertising, and CEO pay. Below is a graph showing how much the
United States spends on healthcare as opposed to other nations.
With California being the sixth largest economy in the world,
it could save roughly 37 billion dollars by enacting single payer.
It would eliminate the need for the private, for-profit insurance
providers, and would provide coverage for all Californians. It
would be good for business and for employees, so if one were to
lose their job, they would still be covered. Right now, even with the
ACA, there are still 3 million Californians without health insurance.
Single payer would address this.
Last year SB 562, the healthy California act was introduced by
Toni Atkins and Ricardo Lara. SB 562 would cover all medical
procedures, including dental, vision, mental health, and drug and
alcohol rehab. There would be no more high insurance premiums,
deductibles, and out of pocket expenses. You can learn more
by going to the website www.healthycaliforniaact.org