Ventura County Star

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

New America in the News:
...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

New America in the News:

...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

New America in the News:

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 match it dollar for dollar.

To do that, Schwarzenegger has proposed a prime-the-pump approach: Impose a fee on healthcare providers, drop that money in the well, and then pull out twice as much to give back to many of the same doctors and hospitals who paid the initial fee.

A similar fee was imposed on nursing homes several years ago, which allowed the state to tap into additional federal funds and substantially increase Medi-Cal — the California version of Medicaid — fees to nursing homes.

"Other states have done it — Illinois is the most recent example, and there are lots of others," said healthcare consultant Peter Harbage, whose work with the New America Foundation has helped drive the California healthcare reform debate. "It's a logical approach."

But there is also another catch: Federal regulations require provider fees be structured in such a way that not everyone who pays becomes a net winner.

"That means," Harbage said, "that for some hospitals, the fee will cost them money, and for others, they will make money..."

For the complete article, please visit the Ventura County Star web site.

Ventura County Star Quotes Len Nichols on CA Health Care Plan

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

New America in the News:

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

New America in the News:

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

New America in the News:

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 bills go unpaid, many healthcare providers shift the cost onto those who can pay — those with health insurance," the report says. "The cost-shifting amounts to a hidden tax levied by providers on behalf of those who cannot pay.... This results in an approximate 10 percent increase in health insurance premiums for Californians. More specifically, the average California family with health insurance will pay an additional $1,186 in premiums for 2006."

It's noteworthy that Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger chose to highlight the release of the report with an appearance at a Los Angeles hospital, where he spoke pointedly about the burden of this "hidden tax" on California businesses and individuals.

With the governor having already identified healthcare reform as his top priority for the Legislature in 2007 and scheduled to release his own specific proposals next week, this notion of a hidden tax could become the economic underpinning for a plan to provide universal, or near-universal, health insurance...

It's not yet clear whether Schwarzenegger is prepared to go that far, but if he chooses to, the Republican governor could use the hidden-tax argument to make a strong case that such a mandate would be a good thing for most California businesses...

The New America Foundation study nicely sums up the issue:

"It is too easy for the 80 percent of Californians with insurance to dismiss the uninsured as an issue that does not affect them. Many businesses that offer insurance today have this same belief. However, as this analysis shows, the cost of the uninsured is shared across those who purchase private insurance in a way that hides the true costs. Covering the uninsured is a matter of self-interest for all Californians."

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