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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC - Public Comments - Joe TyndallMayor Rosansky, council members, my name is Joe Tyndall. I do computer support and technical writing. As an independent contractor, I now pay 8,880 dollars per year for health insurance and I get a rate increase every eight or nine months. I urge this council to endorse Senate Bill 840, the universal, single payer health care system. Why? For example, people say, "My company provides health insurance. Why should I care ?" Okay. But, jobs with health insurance are disappearing. And, if you think about it, the entire cost of health insurance is already built into their paycheck. Let's say total compensation is 60 thousand dollars per year. If it costs 10 thousand for a generous health insurance plan, their employer will pay 60 minus 10 or 50 thousand as salary. All workers are paying for grossly overpriced health insurance whether they realize it or not. By reclaiming the 30 cents of every dollar we now waste on insurance company paperwork, marketing, obscene CEO salary and bonuses, profit, lobbying, campaign contributions, public relations, advertising, think tank contributions, administrative clerks to tell you your premiums are going up and that the service you need is not covered, and lawyers, by the thousands, to make denial of service stand up in court, by recovering all of that, single payer can give every Californian comprehensive health care, and we can still pocket substantial savings. Other benefits? Today, if medical records were online, insurance companies would use that information to deny coverage. They only want people unlikely to make a claim. But, let's say you are in an accident. Without your medical records, the doctors putting you back together are flying blind. What happens if you are allergic to some medication they use? With single payer, there is no incentive to exclude people. Centralized medical records would become a good thing. Every visit and every prescription would be on record. People would no longer be able to obtain drugs from multiple doctors. Single payer offers many benefits. Consider hurricane Katrina. People paid homeowners premiums for years and the insurance companies refuse to pay their claims. Does this happen when you need your health insurance? We have information packets for the counsel and its staff. I urge you to consider this material, and for the benefit of Newport Beach, its businesses, and your constituents, to do all you can to make SB 840, the California Universal Health Care Act, a reality. Thank you. From the desk of Joe Tyndall 2211 Canyon Drive Costa Mesa, Ca. 92627 22 -April -2007 State Senator Tom Harman State Capitol, Room 2052 Sacramento, CA 95814 Costa Mesa Office 950 South Coast Drive, Suite 240 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Dear Senator Harman: As a Costa Mesa resident and one of your constituents, I am writing to urge you to support the California Universal Health Care Act (SB 840) and the companion funding bill (SB 1014). It is my understanding that on this Wednesday (April 25), SB 1014 will be heard in the Revenue and Taxation Committee. As you probably know, SB 840 passed the State legislature last year only to be vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger - for reasons I am sure he will one day regret. I visited your website and found the "Cal CARE" (SB 236) link. So, I downloaded SB 236 and read it. SB 236 strikes me as doing nothing except to produce language that its supporters can use to claim that they voted for health care "reform." Please convince me that I am being needlessly cynical. Could someone from your office explain how SB 236 would contribute meaningfully to solving the health insurance crisis? As an independent contractor, I pay for health insurance out of pocket. The cost is excruciating and I get a premium increase every eight or nine months. Soon, I will no longer be able to afford the cost. This is troubling, given that "denial of service" has now grown to become the seventh leading cause of death in America. In addition, I read the entire Cal CARE site, including the "Comparison of Health Care Reform Proposals" chart. Why did those who produced this chart exclude SB 840 from the comparison? Both Senate President Pro Tempore Perata and Assembly Speaker Nunez are co- authors of SB 840. The Perata and Nunez "alternate" proposals are interim measures to extend healthcare to all children in California should SB 840 fail to pass this year or should Governor Schwarzenegger again veto SB 840 when it reaches his desk. It is also interesting that no one has yet has filed legislation encoding the Governor's (miserable) plan. So, as I see it, there is only one comprehensive proposal currently on the table that offers real and significant health care reform. Americans pay more than $7,000 per person per year for healthcare, more than any other nation. Yet, we stand 37th in the quality of health care as measured across a wide range of indices. The cost of healthcare spirals out of control, while the number of Americans without health insurance continues to grow. The only thing that is healthy is insurance and drug company profits. Letter to Senator Harmon concerning SB -840 from Joe Tyndall - 22 -April -2007 - Page 2 Every other industrialized nation has a single- payer, Medicare-like system that leaves no person uninsured and costs half as much per capita as our profit - driven, employer - based, insurance system. Only 70 cents of our health insurance dollars go to provide health services. This is the part insurance companies call "medical losses." On top of this, there are co- payments, deductibles, uncovered services, lifetime maximum limits, out of pocket expenses, contributions from State and federal treasuries for the uninsured, and so on. Under a single -payer system, there is leverage for major reductions in this portion (70¢) that does not exist under the current system. For example, the State could negotiate with drug companies for bulk prices rather that forcing individual consumers against the system at the retail level. I ask that you review the Lewin report to learn of the many savings possibilities ( www .healthcarefondi.org/lewin.pdf). Single Payer is not "communism." Health care providers remain as private companies, subject to market discipline. We simply eliminate the insurance company middlemen. By reclaiming the 30 cents of every dollar we now spend on insurance company profit, marketing, obscene CEO salary and bonuses, public relations, lobbying, paperwork, campaign contributions, advertising, think tank contributions, administrative clerks to tell you your premiums are going up and that the service you need is not covered, and lawyers, by the thousands, to make denial of service stand up in court, by recovering all of that, Single Payer can give every Californian the same health care system that Congress and CEOs enjoy, and we can still pocket substantial savings. Single Payer (SB 840) offers comprehensive, simple, low - paperwork, market - driven, high - quality, universal, health care coverage combined with major overall cost savings. I guess the question is which is more important, protecting the obscene profits for insurance and drug companies found in the current system, or providing better quality health care for all of your constituents at a substantially reduced overall cost. Sincerely, Joe dall