California Special Report: Straight Talk on Health Coverage
By: Laura Mecoy; Source: AARP Bulletin Date Posted: 2007-06-06 15:11:00-04:00
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."
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