On a parallel track from the health debate raging in the legislature, the Little Hoover Commission continued its examination of state’s health landscape on Thursday, calling academics and advocates to talk about health proposals on the table. Since last year, the Little Hoover Commission, which is charged with examining ways to make state government more efficient, began looking at different aspects of the health care system late last year...

The three-hour conversation on Thursday was slightly different than the other commision hearings in that it reviewed health reform through a wide lens – not just limied to public programs, even though its focus is state government. Panelists on Thursday included:
• Peter Harbage, senior program associate for the Health Policy Program for the New America Foundation.
• Gerald F. Kominski, Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
• Glenn Melnick, Professor and Blue Cross of California Chair in Health Care Finance; School of Policy Planning and Development at the University of Southern California
• Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access California, yours truly

After each presenter provided an overall statement, there was a wide ranging question and answer session with the Commissioners. There were many topics of discussion and interest. Below is just a smattering of the conversation:

On the "hidden tax":

One of the elements discussed was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pitch about the $1,186 "hidden tax." The New America Foundation’s recent report by Peter Harbage, “A Premium Price,” is widely cited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration, when arguing that a “hidden tax’’ of $1,186 is paid by insured Californians to make up for uncompensated care.

When questioned about the savings, Harbage reiterated his case that the report put forward a "conservative" estimate...

For the complete article, please visit the California Progress Report website.