Regional News From the AARP Bulletin
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-11-09 10:27:19.805410-05:00
January/February 2008
Drawing the lines – With the 2010 national census approaching, AARP California is championing a ballot initiative to reform the process of redrawing the state’s legislative districts, which change with fluctuations in population. The California Voters FIRST initiative would create a nonpartisan commission to draw a new map. In past years, the job has been undertaken by sitting members of the legislature, often resulting in district lines that serve the interests of those seeking reelection.
Supporting the initiative is a coalition that includes AARP, Common Cause, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, endorsed the initiative in December, and coalition members have begun gathering the necessary 1 million signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
December 2007
Lost treasure – Holiday shoppers could be in for a windfall if their names are on a list maintained by the State Controller's Office.
Banks, utility companies and other businesses are required to send unclaimed assets such as deposits and overpayments to the state for safekeeping if an account has been inactive for three years. Such accounts amount to $5.1 billion in unclaimed assets, and state Controller John Chiang, D, aims to return the money to its rightful owners. Chiang is working with AARP California, the California Broadcasters Association and California Cable and Telecommunications Association to spread the word.
The Unclaimed Property Program returned an average of $1,216 to more than 276,000 people last year. To search for unclaimed funds that may belong to you or your family, go to www.sco.ca.gov or call 1-800-992-4647.
November 2007
With the clock running on his “Year of Health Care Reform,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, last month proposed using state lottery revenue to breathe life back into his drive for health insurance for all California residents.
State legislative leaders scheduled an Oct. 31 hearing on the measure. But the California Labor Federation — an umbrella group closely allied with the Democratic legislative leadership — hired a well-known political consultant, Chris Lehane, to mount an opposition campaign.
Against this backdrop, AARP and other consumer advocates continued their months-long push for expanding health coverage.
“Our members expect the governor and the legislative leaders to work together to achieve real reform this year,” says Mark Beach, AARP California’s spokesman. “Millions of Californians can’t afford to wait any longer.”
Casey Young, AARP California’s advocacy manager, says private discussions are under way among the various groups seeking reform this year. “We are now looking at a sprint to what most see as a Dec. 1 deadline for the legislation,” he says.
The country has been watching developments in California ever since January, when Schwarzenegger outlined a $12 billion plan to cover the state’s 6.6 million uninsured. The Democrat-controlled legislature approved a more modest plan that would have covered two-thirds of the uninsured.
The governor rejected that legislation. His new bill insists on coverage for all residents, regardless of their medical history. Employers would have to provide insurance or pay a fee to the state, and hospitals would pay a tax.
According to the governor, leasing the state-run lottery to a private operator would generate another $2 billion in revenues.
Republican lawmakers have steadfastly opposed all taxes and fees, a position that’s effectively blocked any of the funding proposals so far. So Schwarzenegger proposed a two-prong approach: Lawmakers approve the reforms and then ask the state’s voters to approve the taxes and free increases.
Young, AARP California’s advocacy manager, says the governor and lawmakers are aiming for a Dec. 1 approval of health care legislation to ensure they have enough time to gather the signatures needed to place a statewide measure on the ballot in November 2008. The governor remains optimistic this will indeed by the “Year of Health Care Reform.”
“We represent the best chance for comprehensive health care reform, I think, in 100 years,” the governor said. “I have great hopes because the legislative leaders are all positive. There is a will to fix it.”
September 2007
It's crunch time for California lawmakers trying to overhaul the state's health care system during the final days of the 2007 legislative session.
The issue promises to be a cliffhanger because a bill addressing the state's $186 billion health system was sidelined while the governor and lawmakers spent the summer squabbling about the state budget. The budget battle was so acrimonious that some doubt a compromise on health can be reached.
“California will lead the way one way or another,” says Casey Young, AARP California's advocacy manager. “We of course hope that we'll be able to show other states that it's possible to get health care reform.”
But the clock is ticking. The legislature is set to adjourn Sept. 14, although in fact it could end earlier because the Jewish New Year begins Sept. 12.
The leaders of the Senate and the Assembly, both Democrats, have agreed on a measure to expand health coverage to more than two-thirds of the state's uninsured. But Republican lawmakers rejected any revenue increases to pay for more coverage. They say the 7.5 percent payroll fee the legislation would impose on business is too costly.
While the Democrats have enough votes to approve the measure without the Republicans, there's no guarantee the governor will sign their bill.
“We've tried to build bipartisan support for the plan, but we'll move ahead even if Republicans don't vote for this, because lack of health care is a crisis we can't continue to ignore,” says Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.
Schwarzenegger wants bipartisan support. His proposal calls for expanding coverage while sharing the $12 billion cost among workers, employers, hospitals and doctors. Schwarzenegger's plan has not been proposed as legislation. So the governor has to press for his plan in negotiations with legislative leaders.
“There are very real differences between the governor's and the legislators' plans,” says Anthony Wright, Health Access California executive director. “But their plans are more similar than they are different.”
Pressure to resolve any differences mounted as the deadline approached, with opponents and supporters alike increasingly anxious. Opponents feared a botched bill while supporters fretted about lost opportunities and piecemeal reform.
The California Endowment, a private health foundation, launched a $6 million advertising campaign last month urging reform. AARP scheduled a rally to bring throngs of red-shirted supporters to Sacramento on Aug. 22 for AARP Day.
“AARP Day at the Capitol was a way for our members to raise their voices together to demand that their legislators get real health reform done this year,” says Tom Porter, AARP state director.
Sabrina Lockhart, the governor's spokeswoman, calls such campaigns “unprecedented” and predicts public pressure will “carry the torch forward.”
Business groups, including the California Restaurant Association, worked to defeat the Democrats' bill because of the proposed fees on business. They also threatened to sue or to wage an initiative campaign next year, if needed, to overturn new health care fees.
“Obviously, the legislature is not going to get everything done this year,” says Karen Nikos, spokeswoman for the California Medical Association. “But we're going to get something done ... and that will be more than has been done in decades in health care.”
— Reports by Laura Mecoy
July 2007
As summer temperatures heat up, so has the rhetoric around reforming California’s health care system.
Union members calling for change symbolically buried the state’s broken health care system in a mock funeral service in early June in San Bernardino, while Blue Cross of California launched the first ad campaign opposing some reform proposals.
AARP joined several groups in airing a competing television ad urging lawmakers to act this year and scheduled a bus tour around the state next month to rally for reform. [See schedule at right.] “Our main issue is that Californians are currently denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions—perhaps from long ago or now under control—or pay more simply because of their age,” says JoAnn Lamphere, AARP’s national coordinator for state affairs.
The debate also went Hollywood. Health care advocates used Sicko, Michael Moore’s new documentary on the country’s health system, to help make their case; and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, appeared on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno to reiterate his pledge to make this the year for reform. “What we want to do is lower the health care costs, insure everyone and make sure that all insurance companies cover everybody who wants to be covered,” the governor told Leno.
After six months of talk, the California Assembly responded on June 8 by approving a health reform measure proposed by its leader, Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-L.A. The Senate acted, too, approving a similar bill by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.
Differences in the plans must be worked out with the governor, and much remains to be resolved before the Sept. 14 deadline for final passage. The biggest difference: The legislative leaders would require employers to pay most of the cost of expanding health insurance, and their plans would cover about two-thirds of the state’s 6.5 million uninsured. The governor’s plan would cover all uninsured Californians and spread the costs among employers, health care providers, employees and the state.
Perata, Núñez and Schwarzenegger insist they can work out any differences. “Everything is still on the table,” says Sabrina Lockhart, the governor’s spokeswoman. “We’re committed to getting it done this year,” Perata said.
But the Blue Cross ad campaign represents the first visible sign of the potentially powerful opposition that health care advocates fear could derail reform in the legislature or, after enactment, in the courts or at the ballot box.
The ads say reform could have unintended consequences, as with the deregulation that ushered in the state’s 2001 energy crisis. “If they’re going to try to compare health care reform to the energy crisis, then they’re playing the role of Enron,” says Anthony Wright, executive director of the consumer group Health Access California. “They’re the ones who benefit from the status quo because they know how to manipulate the market and avoid people who are sick, just like Enron manipulated the energy market.”
Spokesman Nick Garcia says Blue Cross of California supports most of the proposed reforms. But it opposes those requiring it to insure all applicants without a mandate for all Californians to have insurance. “If there is no strong individual mandate, it would be like calling an insurance company after your house burns down and saying, ‘I need insurance today,’ ” he says.
While Blue Cross was launching its campaign, AARP joined with the California Medical Association, Consumers Union and other groups in airing television ads supporting reform. The ads feature a busy emergency room and say, “If we don’t make it better now, it will keep getting worse.”
Anmol S. Mahal, CMA president, says the spots seek to pressure lawmakers to act. “Health care reform is clearly a difficult issue, and that is why it has gone on so long without real solutions,” he says. “But things are definitely heating up.”
For more on the campaign and how to share stories, call 1-866-448-3615 toll free or go to www.aarp.org/ca.
June 2007
Many Calls for Relief, Many Concerns... Neither rain nor snow is supposed to stop the U.S. Postal Service from its appointed rounds. But something went awry with Eleanor Higgins’ mail delivery, and it cost the newly retired researcher her health insurance.
One day last year, Higgins’ postal carrier inexplicably returned the letter she had mailed containing her insurance payment. She immediately sent another payment, but her insurance company canceled her policy because her check arrived four days late. No other company would cover the 63-year-old Sierra Madre resident because she is asthmatic.
“It was scary,” Higgins says. “For the first time in my life I was uninsured, and I have a chronic disease.”
Higgins was among three Californians who recounted their insurance travails to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, during the first of a series of AARP forums calling for comprehensive health care reform in the state this year.
The governor promised to help Californians like Higgins by enacting comprehensive health reform legislation this year. But overhauling the existing system is so difficult that AARP is urging the public to keep the pressure on the politicians.
“We’re working with many committed organizations, with the governor, legislators and other state officials,” AARP CEO Bill Novelli said. “We’re also involving our members and volunteers who will reach out to their friends and neighbors and their political leaders to help make reform a reality.”
Schwarzenegger’s plan would require insurance companies to cover people, like Higgins, with a preexisting condition. It also would require all Californians to obtain health insurance, hospitals and doctors to help pay for insurance for low-income residents, and employers to spend a set amount on workers’ health care.
While overall reform is widely supported in the state, some specific proposals face substantial opposition. Unions worry that workers might be forced to buy unaffordable health coverage, and Republican lawmakers object to mandating health insurance. Some doctors and hospitals oppose subsidizing health care for the poor, and some employers worry about paying more for health care. Illegal immigration foes are up in arms over extending benefits to undocumented Californians.
Legislative leaders have tried to assuage some of these concerns with their own proposals. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, says he would phase in the individual insurance mandate over five years, instead of adhering to Schwarzenegger’s one-year timetable.
Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, wouldn’t require poor adults to have health insurance. But both leaders would require almost all employers to provide insurance or pay into a state fund. They also would provide insurance to children from poor and middle-class families.
“The governor, speaker and I are committed to this goal,” Perata says. “The Republican leadership recognizes health care is a fundamental problem. While we may differ on the approach, we agree something must be done.”
“The only way we are going to get health care reform is if everybody is too scared not to do it,” says Darry Sragow, an AARP political consultant. “That is where AARP comes in. That is where having more than 3 million members in California is important.”
For Californians like Eleanor Higgins, these changes can’t come soon enough. She went without insurance for three months before getting coverage through the state’s high-risk pool. But the payments consume almost half of her Social Security check. Higgins is counting the days until health care reform is enacted and she can get affordable insurance.
“There are probably millions in my situation,” she says. “If the governor and the legislature could just improve on what we have, that would be a big help.”
AARP’s Drive for Reform
AARP is waging a statewide effort to make health care a top priority. Here’s what you can do:
Call Lawmakers
Tell your elected officials that they must work together to achieve real health care solutions this year. Call 1-800-764-5755.
Volunteer
Contact us at 1-866-448-3615 toll free.
Watch
The Spot
The campaign is airing a 15-second television spot urging an end to “gridlock.”
May 2007
As the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger blew up buildings, cars and people onscreen. Now that he’s governor, the former actor is blowing open doors on public policy with his $12 billion plan to overhaul California’s health care system. It’s an audacious and controversial proposal aimed at insuring all Californians. Conflicts over such issues as costs, fees for doctors and hospitals, the extent of coverage and how it will all work could threaten his plan. But his proposal also holds the promise of restraining skyrocketing costs, ensuring access to quality care and improving the overall health of Californians by encouraging preventive measures. The leaders of the state Senate and Assembly have each written their own prescriptions for the state’s ailing medical system, and Democratic leaders and the Republican governor agree that now’s the time to work together for reform, using the various proposals as a starting point.
Schwarzenegger recently told a group of consumers and health professionals that he wants to “really show the rest of the nation and ... the federal government that we can do it here in California. And if we can do it here ... other states can do it, and the federal government can also do it.” While AARP hasn’t endorsed any of the plans circulating in Sacramento, the association has jumped into the debate with an unprecedented statewide effort. AARP is working in the capital and around the state, recruiting volunteers and staging events to urge legislators to expand health care access. “AARP will be a strong advocate to ensure that Californians of all ages can get the health care they need when they need it,” says Tom Porter, director of AARP California. [See events below]
The presidential candidates are already discussing health reform, and it’s no wonder, given the magnitude of the problem. In California alone, more than one in six residents are uninsured; yet 85 percent of them work. Most seek care in emergency rooms or clinics, limiting access to these services and straining hospital budgets. In the last decade, more than 65 emergency rooms in California have closed. “This is a crisis,” says JoAnn Lamphere, national coordinator for AARP’s state health and long-term care team. “It’s not just a story about the uninsured. It’s a story about ‘life happens.’ You become divorced or downsized from a job and find yourself without insurance.” She says people ages 50 to 64, who aren’t old enough for Medicare, often can’t qualify for insurance because of preexisting minor health problems.
Most analysts expect that lawmakers will ultimately decide on a compromise reached between Schwarzenegger and the Democratic leaders, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. So far, the three agree on expanding coverage to all children; requiring employers to provide health insurance or pay into a state fund for the uninsured; and changing the rules so fewer people could be denied coverage.
But they differ in their approaches, and each faces opposition on several fronts. Republican lawmakers have rejected the governor’s plan and put forth their own. Some groups aligned with the Democrats back a single-payer health care plan. And long-running debates about taxation, small businesses, the role of government, and immigration could threaten to scuttle even the most popular element of reform—insuring all children.
“It will be a real test of the governor’s mettle to show he can translate all that political interest into a winning proposal,” says Robert K. Ross, M.D., CEO and president of the California Endowment, a private health care foundation. Ross expects only “incremental” change but says “incremental is not a bad thing” if it means more Californians get health insurance. However it turns out, he says, we should all grab a bag of popcorn and a front row seat to watch the former Terminator take on his latest foe: California’s health care crisis.
Coming Up...
AARP is holding sessions for volunteers in the districts of state legislators likely to support health care reform. The events will offer training and information on how you can help in our campaign to persuade lawmakers to enact changes this year.
May 1, 7-9 p.m.
Merced Senior Center
May 2, 2-4 p.m.
Montebello Senior Center
May 5, 9:30 a.m.-noon
Pasadena Senior Center
May 12, 10 a.m.-noon Cesar Chavez Library, Stockton
May 14, 4-6 p.m.
SmittCamp Alumni House, Fresno
May 17, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
South San Francisco Senior Center
May 18, 9 a.m.-noon
Oliphant Auditorium, CSU, San Bernardino
Palm Desert
—Reports by Laura Mecoy
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