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May
1, 2007
South
Bay Businesses Stand Strong on Health Care Reform
The
skyrocketing cost of health care has made it
increasingly difficult for employers, especially small
employers, to afford to offer health care benefits to
employees and their dependents. Employers and
policymakers are desperately seeking ways to reduce
healthcare costs and assure that all Americans have
access to affordable and quality healthcare.
It is
estimated that one out of every five residents are
without health insurance, over 6.5 million
Californians. This is the most in any state and 75
percent of these uninsured are members of working
families according to a study conduct by UCLA. A recent
New America Foundation white paper estimates the average
family pays about $1,186 a year in health insurance
premiums to cover the uninsured.
Position
The SBACC
reserves its right to establish its position on proposed
health care reforms during or after the legislature has
time to review and debate their proposals.
Currently,
the SBACC SUPPORTS the following, but is not
limited to:
- Policies
that encourage continued medical discoveries and
innovations that improve quality of care;
- Actions
that preserve the current voluntary employer-provided
health coverage system;
- Efforts to
contain the costs of premiums;
- Conformity
to federal law on health savings accounts;
-
Legislation to allow employers to offer more affordable
benefit plans that allow choices in coverage;
-
Opportunities to gain efficiencies and optimal outcomes
by coordinating the fragmented health care delivery
systems;
- Work to
curb the expansion of litigation in the health care
system;
- Reforms to
the worker compensation system that deliver significant
cost savings;
- Efforts to
make health prevention the foundation for reform through
greater government responsibility for primary prevention
efforts.
Furthermore,
the SBACC OPPOSES the following, but is not
limited to:
- Policies
that allow cost shifting from government-provided
programs to the private sector;
- Proposals
that stifle research and development, enact price
controls, encourage counterfeit drugs and interfere in
the ability of employers and health providers to
negotiate for lower drug costs;
- Proposals
to establish a government-run health care delivery
system in California; and,
- Employer
mandates. |
