Tuesday the eternally bankrupt Oakland Tribune tried to school us on good economics and used as a foil healthcare reform being proposed in the California legislature. The Trib stated that in these hard economic times we cannot afford such expenses. The fact of the matter is that in the much better economic times of 2006 when both the Assembly and the Senate passed this bill the Trib was against it then just as it is today.

In the 1200 days since Governor Schwazenegger vetoed then SB840, 144,000 Americans have died because they lacked adequate access to healthcare. That translates into roughly 18,000 Californians. Americans now have the most expensive healthcare system on the face of the earth, nearly twice what other industrialized countries pay, and yet we allow members of our society to die preventable deaths for the profit of a few. These 18,000 deaths are on the hands of the Governor because he wanted to please the insurance industry profiteers.

I am not surprised that a failing business, one that has monopoly status, has got it all wrong. They are failing because what they pass off as information to the residences of Oakland and the broader Bay Area is so inaccurate. Newspapers are not failing because paper is expensive. They are failing because they have concentrated their ownership into the hands of a very few corporate giants that are not in the business of an informed population, and we just don’t want to read their lies anymore.

But let’s go back to the economic argument that the Trib brought up. There are only 34 countries in the world with more people than California but only seven with larger economies. California has lots of money. It is just not fairly taxed. SB810 the successor to the twice-passed SB840 would cut the total cost of healthcare for Californians dramatically. And while doing so it would allow everybody who lives here full and comprehensive care. It would do this at a tremendous savings to local governments and agencies, from cities to school and fire districts. These employers yearly savings would be about $2,000 per employee. For example the County of Marin has estimated that it would have saved $9 million each year if the Governor had signed the bill. The larger Sonoma County’s estimate was $37 million yearly. The medium size City of Rohnert Park’s estimate was about $1 million.

Private companies would also be big savers. Health insurance and the human resource expenses to manage it cost employers 20 percent of their payroll. SB810 would drop that to 8 percent with an employee contribution of 4 percent. But the legislature could decide that this tax on wage earners is unfair and spread the tax to all California income. Then the tax rate would drop dramatically.

The overall savings to the California economy both private and public is in the billions of dollars. Instead of attacking a creative plan to solve a crisis that is both killing Californians at a rate of 6,000 a year and bankrupting many tens of thousands more the Trib should be asking local governments just how much of their citizens tax dollars they would save if the Governor signs the SB810 this time. They might even want to ask their own accountant that question. Maybe they could forestall another bankruptcy, and we might start reading their paper again.

OK I forgot to address the Kaiser issue. Is this really an issue. All Kaiser healthcare providers including their hospitals will continue if they so choose. Their insurance business will not provide for coverage as it won’t be needed anymore. Single-payer means you get to keep your own doctors and nurses, just not the non-productive insurance plans.

Write the Oakland Tribune and tell them they are full of it.

"Editorial: California health care bill is not going anywhere"
[ http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_14264540?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com ]