California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touted his state’s collaboration between Democrat and Republican lawmakers as key to creating healthcare reform that will be a model for other states and the federal government at a national health insurance conference.
Schwarzenegger told attendees of Institute 2007, the annual conference for America’s Health Insurance Plans last week that he will push for a healthcare system run by the private sector that provides affordable insurance coverage for all.
With 6.5 million uninsured people in California, the state’s businesses are being crippled by healthcare costs. “It nearly is impossible to stay competitive with those kinds of costs, and you can’t pass those costs on every year to the consumers,” he said.
Eschewing “artificial means” to bring down costs, he entreated health insurance companies to be “efficient, cost-effective and focused on quality.”
“We want government to partner with the private sector and to fix the inequities in the market so that everyone is covered and has access to the medical care they need,” he said.
While guaranteed issue may be the most controversial part of his reform plan, he announced that six of the largest insurance companies in California, namely Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net of California, Kaiser Permanente and PacifiCare, have agreed with his position of guaranteed issue if combined with individual mandate.
“I want to thank them and applaud them for already stepping forward up and assuming their part of the responsibility to help fix our broken healthcare system,” he said.
Schwarzenegger is calling for at least 85 percent of all premium revenues to go directly into patient care.
If health plans reduce administrative expenses and overhead, he said they would be able to provide good products at affordable prices.
Schwarzenegger promised to remove state regulations that have kept health plans from offering lower-cost products to employers and individuals.
He said that his specific reforms would pave the way for universal healthcare that would benefit all stakeholders – if they support it from the beginning.