CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2022 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“THREE
LETTERS EXPLAIN PROBLEMS OF SINGLE PAYER INSURANCE: EDD”
It takes
only three letters to explain why the idea of single payer health insurance
keeps getting shot down quickly in the California Legislature: EDD.
No
program in state, city or local government has shown itself less competent over
the last few years than the state Employment Development Department’s
unemployment insurance system, which lost a reported $20 billion to fraudulent
claims during the first 18 months or so of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yes, the
EDD was flooded with claims in that time of massive layoffs. But it was
woefully unprepared for the many fraud schemes brought to bear against its
funds during that most fraught of times.
Yes, the
EDD has clawed back a few billion of the dollars that went to fake claimants
all over the world.
But its
demonstrable incompetence under three different department directors causes
millions of Californians to wonder why anyone should entrust massive sums of
money to the state for distribution to legitimate claimants.
And make
no mistake about single payer: It would involve sums far larger even than the
approximately $180 billion passed out by EDD over the first year and a half of
the pandemic.
This
year’s proposal, carried by Democratic Assemblyman Ash Kalra of San Jose, would
have entailed an annual expense of close to $400 billion, well in excess of
California’s general fund budget.
Some of
that money would have come from redirected health insurance premiums, both for
private insurance and for Medicare – if the federal Medicare system would agree
to giving up more than 10 percent of its cash flow. Some would have come from
money given California by the federal Medicaid system, known here as Medi-Cal.
But that still would have left many billions to be raised, presumably by the
largest tax increase in state history.
Just how
difficult this financing would have been to acquire was demonstrated when
Kalra’s AB 1400 spelled out what single payer would do and what it would be –
essentially Medicare for all, with no more insurance company involvement and no
more distinction between Medi-Cal patients and everyone else. It did not say
where the money for this would come from.
Kalra's
bill went nowhere despite the fact that the extreme liberal Democratic
politicians who now run Sacramento, from Gov. Gavin Newsom through Assembly
Speaker Anthony Rendon and state Senate President Toni Atkins of San Diego, all
have long backed the single payer idea.
That was
largely because many Assembly Democrats didn’t want to be forced to go on the
record for or against single payer, especially in an election year when some
will face new constituents during the June and November votes.
So
Kalra’s bill died, at least for this year, without any vote taken, and without
many politicians forced to take positions for which they could be held
responsible.
No one
said so, but one of the main reasons was the EDD debacle. If the state could
not safeguard unemployment insurance dollars paid in by many thousands of
employers, why would anyone think it capable of handling far more money paid in
by tens of millions of individuals?
The
single payer proposal especially offended current Medicare subscribers, who
benefit from a system long opposed by Republicans – but embraced even by them
in recent years because it works.
Typical
is the coverage Medicare affords for heart bypass operations. First, it knocks
down the price asked for such procedures (and most others) by hospitals and
doctors. Then it pays 80 percent of what it allows. Medicare subscribers
(mostly people over 65, but also including younger kidney dialysis patients and
some others) can get the other 20 percent paid by supplemental insurance
policies widely offered in months-long signup periods.
Astonishingly,
there is relatively little fraud in Medicare claims.
Medicare
paid out $718 billion in claims in 2018, the last year for which totals are
available. Known fraud against the system last year totaled just $1.4 billion,
well under 1 percent, and actions were taken against 142 individuals, including
only 42 doctors and nurses.
No wonder
so many want Medicare for all. They certainly don’t want EDD for all and until
there is certainly that would not befall California under single payer, it
won’t happen.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias
at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most
Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,"
is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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