Bill Text: CA SB56 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Health plans: joint ventures.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2010-09-29 - In Senate. To unfinished business. (Veto) [SB56 Detail]

Download: California-2009-SB56-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 56	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Alquist

                        JANUARY 20, 2009

   An act relating to health care.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 56, as introduced, Alquist. Health care.
   Existing law does not provide a system of universal health care
coverage for California residents. Existing law provides for the
creation of various programs to provide health care services to
persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility
requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program
administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board and the
Medi-Cal program administered by counties and the State Department of
Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of
health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care
and health insurers by the Department of Insurance.
   This bill would make legislative findings and declarations
regarding health care coverage and would declare the intent of the
Legislature to enact and implement comprehensive reforms in the state'
s health care delivery system, as specified.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
   (1) Due to the economic downturn, hundreds of thousands of
Californians are joining the ranks of the uninsured or are looking to
publicly financed programs for their health care coverage.
   (2) Compared to persons with health care coverage, the uninsured
are less likely to have a regular source of care, are likely to delay
seeing a doctor, and are less likely to receive preventive health
care services.
   (3) Based on recent data collected by the Kaiser Family
Foundation, health care costs continue to rise at a faster rate than
general inflation and average wage growth.
   (4) President Obama has pledged to seek the adoption of major
health care reforms at the national level, which are likely to
include, at a minimum, additional funding for states as well as
increased flexibility for states in how they administer their health
care systems.
   (b) In light of these findings, it is the intent of the
Legislature to enact and implement comprehensive reforms in the state'
s health care delivery system by 2012 that will accomplish all of the
following:
   (1) Ensure that all Californians have access to affordable, high
quality health care coverage.
   (2) Ensure that the responsibility for providing and paying for
health care coverage is equitably shared between employers,
individuals, and government.
   (3) Help contain the long-range rate of growth of health care
costs.
   (4) Reform insurance underwriting and rating practices by reducing
the use of medical status or conditions as criteria for the offering
or rating of individual insurance products.
   (5) Improve the health status of Californians and reduce health
disparities over time.
   (6) Ensure fair and adequate payments to health care providers who
provide services under the state's publicly funded health care
programs.
   (c) It is further the intent of the Legislature to enact specific
reforms by 2010 that will help provide a foundation for any
successful health care reform in California, and that will accomplish
all of the following:
   (1) Ensure that all children in the state have access to
affordable, high quality health care coverage.
   (2) Encourage greater use of electronic medical records and other
health information technology by health care providers.
   (3) Make comparative health care cost and quality data more
readily available to consumers and purchasers.
   (4) Make it easier for individuals and small employers to shop for
and compare the benefits and costs of competing health plans.
   (5) Allow all workers to set aside money to pay for health care
coverage on a pretax basis.
   (6) Begin to draw down federal funds that are available for
covering low-income adults and families.
   (7) Reduce the use of medical underwriting in the individual
health insurance market, cap health care service plans' and insurers'
administrative costs and profits, and establish minimum benefit
standards for health plans offered in the state.
   (8) Allow health plans and employers to offer incentives for
enrollees to enroll in and use preventive health care programs that
will improve their health.
   (9) Address health care workforce shortages and better prepare
persons for careers in the health care delivery system.
   (10) Facilitate the formation of public insurer entities,
including through better integration of county local initiatives and
organized health systems.