California's Christmas Gift To The Big Insurers - Most Major Insurance Companies Back Bill For Forced Insurance At Expense Of Patients

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 19 Dec 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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The new healthcare bill passed by the California Assembly Monday is "a big Christmas gift to the insurance industry with Gov. Schwarzenegger playing Santa by doling out public funds to enrich the state's biggest HMOs and insurers," said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Association.

Under the new bill, insurers would gain millions of new customers who are either forced to buy insurance under threat of having their wages garnished or a lien on their property - or signed up into private insurance plans through a public pool funded with taxpayer or employer-funded subsidies.

Supporters of the bill include seven of the state's biggest insurers: Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, PacifiCare, Blue Shield, Cigna, and Molina Health Care.

Yet, while receiving hundreds of millions in additional profits, the insurance companies will still be able to deny care and charge as much as they want with no limits on rising premiums, deductibles, or co-pays, DeMoro noted.

The bill passed Monday - the product of a backroom deal between Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez - even eliminated a provision from an earlier draft that would have provided exemptions to the forced insurance for Californians whose costs would exceed 6.5 percent of their income.

"This is not healthcare reform. It's a hijacking of the yearning of the public for genuine overhaul of our healthcare system. It's Schwarzenegger as a reverse Robin Hood, picking the pockets of patients and the public coffers for the biggest insurers in the land. And it will not stand," DeMoro said.

With thousands of California children facing the imminent cutoff of coverage due to the president's veto of the children's health program, and Schwarzenegger proposing major cuts in existing health programs due to the current budget deficit, lawmakers "should focus on guaranteeing continued coverage for children and protecting current programs rather than handing out presents to a wealthy industry that hardly needs the help," DeMoro said.

California Nurses Association