Ventura County Star

Can a 17-year-old Register to Vote? It Depends | Ventura County Star

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:06:00 -0400

“As you look at other states, this has been a thoroughly nonpartisan or bipartisan issue,” said Blair Bobier, deputy director of the New America Foundation ...

Taming the Wild California | Ventura County Star

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:25:00 -0400

... groups like Common Cause, The New America Foundation, The Courage Campaign, Orange County Lincoln Club and Joint Venture - Silicon Valley Networks. ...

Arnold the Independent? | Ventura County Star

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:17:00 -0500

Now, Joe Mathews -- a former Los Angeles Times reporter and Schwarzenegger biographer -- reports that the governor's advisers recently held a formal discussion to consider whether Schwarzenegger should renounce his party affiliation and become an ...

Mark Paul in the Ventura County Star | 'Herdt: Will it Be Cash or Charge?'

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:02:00 -0400

Mark Paul, a scholar for the New America Foundation, which sponsored Tuesday's discussion, noted that since 1998 California voters have approved $108 billion in general obligation bonds.

"Californians want, and so they borrow," Paul said. "There is an unwillingness to actually pay for things with taxes or user fees."

Paul proposes that the "something for nothing" mentality be staunched with a requirement that every ballot proposition that involves spending be forced "to pay for itself with either new revenue or offsetting spending cuts." LINK

New America Foundation in Ventura County Star | 'Decline-to-State Voters Need to Know They Have Options'

Communications — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:08:00 -0400

...Some partisans scoff at the independent voters, saying that they "have no opinion or convictions." But, independent voters very often have a mix of beliefs and principles that don't completely fit into one party's mold. A study done at the New America Foundation shows that the independent voter is generally younger, male, college-educated, a fiscal conservative (willing to accept fewer government services in exchange for paying less in taxes), pro-choice, an environmentalist, pro-securing the border, and growing in numbers of minorities. Sounds like a pretty concerned, informed bloc of voters...LINK

New America Foundation in Ventura County Star | ''Magic' of Savings'

Communications — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:36:00 -0400

...The New America Foundation's idea is embodied in AB2940, by Assemblyman Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles. It would establish the California Employee Savings Program, to be administered by the California Public Employees Retirement System, the same entity that invests the pension contributions of state and local government workers...LINK

Harbage in the Ventura County Star on Schwarzenegger's Health Reforms

Communications — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:26:00 -0400

SACRAMENTO — There are 4.1 million New Yorkers who get healthcare coverage under Medicaid, the federal safety net for the poor. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends an average of $5,891 a year.

In California, there are 6.5 million low-income people who rely on the same program. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends just $3,419.

Who makes up the difference?

To a large degree, health policy experts say, it is Californians with private insurance: They pay higher premiums to backfill the losses incurred by doctors and hospitals that lose money by treating poor patients insured by the government.

The clock is ticking toward the deadline for enacting major healthcare reforms before the Legislature adjourns next month. New attention is being focused on one element of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed reforms that has been largely overlooked — tapping into a pool of up to $2 billion in federal money that could help reinvigorate what the governor calls the state's "broken healthcare system."

"The money's there, if the Legislature acts," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshé.

There is, however, a catch: In order to access the money, the state would have to… more

Ventura County Star Quotes Len Nichols on CA Health Care Plan

Communications — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:34:00 -0400

SACRAMENTO — Facing a September deadline to create the universal or near-universal healthcare system they've talked about all year, lawmakers and health policy experts are now confronting the issue's most politically sensitive question: How much can ordinary Californians afford to pay?That issue — affordability — bedeviled and partially derailed the heralded universal healthcare plan in Massachusetts, upon which the California proposals are partly based. Earlier this year, Massachusetts regulators decided to exempt 20 percent of the uninsured from that state's insurance mandate after concluding not everyone could afford to pay the premiums.Len Nichols, a veteran of healthcare debates since the Clinton administration and now director of the New America Foundation's health policy program, recently visited Sacramento to share a basic fact of life with those considering reforms."You cannot credibly require people to buy something they can't afford," he said...

For the complete article, please visit the Ventura County Star website.

New America Health Care Report Cited by Ventura County Star

Communications — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:30:00 -0500

Better access: If the emergency room is the only place open when people are off from work, that's where they will end up. And that increases medical bills. Instead, creating more clinics that are open after hours and on weekends gives people more options.Better coverage and reimbursement: If more people are enrolled in health insurance programs, then less of the healthcare costs for the uninsured would be pushed onto others. There would be less cost-shifting if government programs increased reimbursements for treatments...Cost-shifting: Treating the uninsured and underinsured often results in the costs of treatment being shifted onto those who are insured. This is exacerbated by low reimbursement from government programs, such as Medicare. The New America Foundation estimates that "cost shifting" results in a 10 percent increase for people with insurance, or $1,186 in additional premiums each year to cover a family...

For the complete article, please visit the Ventura County Star website.

To view the New America Health report, A Premium Price, please click here.

New America Health Insurance Report Cited in Ventura County Star

Communications — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:17:00 -0500

Imagine a restaurant in which the maitre d' asked each patron to show a credit card before being seated. Those with a card would be seated, served and then given a bill for the cost of their meal. Those without a credit card would be fed for free. How long would it take for the paying customers to figure out that they were paying not just for the cost of their own food, but also indirectly for the free food served to others?...The fictional practice of this fictional restaurant is the real-life policy of real-life hospitals, medical clinics and doctor's offices. When patients come in, they're asked for an insurance card. If they have one, their medical services are paid for. If they don't, the provider often ends up giving medical services for free. In the end, it's the people with the insurance cards who pay for all of it. In an important new study released last month, the nonpartisan New America Foundation put a price tag on what the average insured Californian pays to underwrite the medical care provided to the state's 6.5 million uninsured. "When medical… more