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Cogdill: Prescription for health care reform is common sense
By Dave Cogdill, for the Modesto Bee, 1/28/10
In the wake of the Massachusetts Senate election, which was fueled by voters angry about the direction our nation is headed, Congressional Democrats effectively pulled the plug on their misguided plans to overhaul our health care system.
Closer to home, California Democrats continue to demonstrate how tone deaf they are to what's playing out on the national stage. Despite state voters striking down similar attempts at the ballot box to socialize medicine, state Democrats have been relentless in introducing legislation for a single payer health care system. Recently, a legislative committee revived Senate Bill 810, which would create a government-run health care system in California. That's right, the same government that has run its fiscal train off the cliff wants to continue to add to our mounting deficit and take away your ability to choose the health coverage that best suits your needs.
This government-run health care proposal would cost $200 billion (yes, with a "B") annually to implement. To help put that in perspective, this year the state is expected to receive less than half that amount, $85 billion, in total revenues to fund every single state program including education, health care for the poor, transportation, and prisons. The bill doesn't spell out exactly how this health care debacle would be funded that will be determined by a "premium commission" comprised mostly of unelected individuals but there's no doubt the bottom line will come from the bottom of your pocketbook. During these difficult economic times, it is unimaginable that lawmakers would propose such an expensive expansion of government that does not even address the root problems within our health care system.
The majority party's insistence that bigger government means better government misses the point and neglects the hardworking taxpayers we serve.
Just a few years ago, California lawmakers heatedly debated health care reform. At that time, Senate Republicans presented CalCare, a cost-effective, balanced and realistic approach to improve consumer choice and expand accessibility, while creating greater reliability in California's health care system. Most importantly, it proposed to use existing dollars to care for California's most vulnerable without raising taxes.
This proposal tackled the three largest problems with our health care system: quality, access and affordability. Key proposals would expand access and improve affordability through the expansion of community-based clinics. Another measure would provide relief to families by allowing them to purchase insurance with pre-tax savings plans, similar to programs already in place for child care. Other bills would create incentives for doctors to accept Medi-Cal and encourage medical professionals to serve in underserved areas, such as rural parts of our state.
These common-sense ideas merit attention again. Instead of creating more bureaucracy at the expense of hard-working taxpayers, lawmakers should focus on solutions within our existing resources to make the current system more affordable and accessible.
Bigger government isn't the prescription for our nation's health care ills, but a little common sense is just what the doctor ordered.
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