California Branch of National Federation Supports Use of Health Savings Plans, Rejects Universal Insurance
The skyrocketing cost of health care will top the agenda of the California chapter of the National Federation of Small Business in Sacramento, leaders of the nation's largest small business advocacy group said in an assessment of the 2005-2006 legislative session. That and other issues side the group firmly with incumbent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ahead of the November elections.
Martyn Hopper, California director of the 600,000-member NFIB, said he anticipates a long and complicated negotiation process about the health care issue, involving insurers, hospitals and other groups. The NFIB's preferred solution includes a mix of health savings accounts (pretax investment accounts usable for qualified medical expenses) and association health plans, preferably organized across state boundaries, to create large insurance pools, Hopper said.
He flatly rejected Senate Bill 840, the universal health care initiative of Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Los Angeles Democrat, which recently passed the legislature. "If you want someone with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the DMV to deal with your health care dollars, support universal health care," said Hopper, a 27-year lobbying veteran in Sacramento.
He added that in his native England, patients in the state-managed health care system often have to wait for months for essential surgical procedures because the state can't afford to foot the bill. "People should be able to shop around. Europeanizing California's health care" won't solve the problems, he said.
Schwarzenegger is very likely to veto Kuehl's bill, but according to Hopper, the governor is determined to put the health care issue at the top of his agenda if he's re-elected in November. NFIB's California members support Schwarzenegger almost unanimously, but Hopper maintained that the organization remains a nonpartisan one.
Still, the NFIB opposes SB 815, another Democratic proposal that the governor is likely to veto. In it, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland has proposed doubling the period that a permanently disabled worker can receive benefits. Hopper said that would roll back much of the small business savings introduced with the much-debated workers' comp regulations two years ago.
