CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / INSURANCE COMMISSIONER : Zelman Urges Replacing Private Health Coverage With State Plan

Insurance commissioner candidate Walter Zelman on Tuesday urged creation of a universal state health care system in California, replacing most private health insurance, to be financed through a payroll tax of about 10%.

Zelman’s proposal is one of the boldest by any of the candidates for insurance commissioner and he pledged to make enactment of such a system his priority if elected in November.

All Californians served by the plan could choose their own doctors, but the state would negotiate a price scale with the medical practitioners to hold down costs, he said.

Some arrangements might entail modest co-payments by the patients, he added, and in some instances patients wanting special care, such as private hospital rooms, would be required to pay for that themselves.

Unemployed persons would be covered by the state out of the surplus collected through the payroll tax, said Zelman, who is former director of California Common Cause. But visitors to the state would not be covered.

Zelman, saying that more than 5 million Californians have no health insurance and that that number has grown by 50% in the last three years, told a Westwood news conference that the present system is intolerable and that “surgery,” not a Band-Aid approach, is necessary.

One other candidate in the crowded race, Democratic ex-television commentator Bill Press, has advocated a universal health care plan in his speeches, but he has not presented details of how it would operate.

The Legislature has been considering several less comprehensive plans, ranging from requiring all employers to buy private health insurance to giving employers a choice between buying private coverage or paying an 8% payroll tax for state insurance. A variation would mandate state subsidies to some employers who are unable to afford full insurance payments, but this would entail a general tax increase.