California authorities will set prices for hospital stays, doctor visits and other medical services in accordance with the legislation introduced Monday, is much remaking the industry in order to reduce health care costs.
This proposal, which attracted swift opposition from the healthcare industry, came amid fierce debate in California as activists on the left to push aggressively for a system that will provide government-funded insurance for all in the state.
Across the country, rising health care costs put the industry, the legislature and employers and consumers diverge.
Offer in California will affect private health care plans, including those offered by employers and bought individuals. Nine members of the Commission are appointed by the Governor and legislative leaders will set the price of everything from a physical exam to test for allergies for heart bypass surgery. No other state has such a requirement.
“If we don’t act now, I understand that health care costs will become unsustainable,” said ash Kalra, a freshman Democrat from San Jose who wrote the legislation, said at a press conference in Sacramento.
The measure faces an uphill battle in the Legislature, where members usually tend drastic changes in the health system, and is juggling a variety of ambitious proposals.
The proposal relies on powerful unions, including the service employees International Union, unite here and the Teamsters. The trade unions are disappointed that health care costs are gobbling up an increasing proportion of wage workers.
“Every dollar that we spend on higher prices for health care is a dollar that comes out of a work pocket,” says Sara flocks, policy coordinator California Federation of labor, the Union coalition. “That’s what eats up our wages and increasing income inequality. This is a fundamental issue of fairness”.
Medics say, the price regulation will stimulate physicians to leave the state or retire, making it more difficult for people to go to the doctor when they are sick, and force hospitals to lay off staff or, in some cases close their doors.
The California medical Association, which represents doctors, called the proposal “radical” and warned that it will reduce choice for consumers.
“No state in America I have not tried this unproven inflexible policy, managed state of marginal prices of all medical services,” Dr. Theodore Mazer, President of the CMA, said in a statement.
Under the bill Kalra, prices will be pegged to the medicare rate in respect of a particular service or procedure, with this price floor. There is a process for doctors or hospitals claim that their unique circumstances require payment of higher than standard rate of the state.
Hospitals to pay 125% of medicare will be cut $18 billion in revenue and force them to cut nurses and other support staff, said Dietmar Grellman, senior Vice President of the California Association of hospitals. Private insurance companies to compensate for the low salary of government funded health care that does not cover the full cost of services, he said.
“That’s why their bill is such an empty promise,” said Grellman. “They take the money out of the system with speed regulation, and then they do not take into account the huge Gaping hole created by medicare and medicaid.”
In recent decades health care costs have increased faster than inflation and wages while employers and health plans have shifted more of the costs onto consumers via higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Americans spend more per capita on health care than other developed countries.
Meanwhile, the wave of consolidation, hospitals, physician groups and insurance companies subject to sectoral players more power to demand higher rates.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
