Health Reform

The California Medical Assn.’s Board of Directors will soon decide whether to seek reform of the state health system through a 1992 ballot initiative. I hope they choose the legislative process instead.

The ballot initiative process is supposed to be a way of letting the people decide. But experience has taught us that it becomes little more than a war of words. Each side spends millions of dollars on campaigns that try to make complex issues into simple slogans. Instead of sitting down and looking for common ground, the opponents abandon all communication in favor of hard-line stances in a “winner-take-all” gamble. As a result, the final product often serves no one.

The Consumer Health Insurance Coalition will have no choice but to oppose a CMA ballot initiative because the measure under consideration is not a solution. We feel confident that the public would reject it after seeing what it really contains. But, do both sides have to bloody themselves in public debate before the public is served?

There is still time for all sides to head-off the hyperbole, put aside the bluster and work for a constructive solution that addresses the problem to the benefit of consumers, providers and insurers. The Travelers and other insurers have worked effectively with members of the California Medical Assn. in the past, and we are again anxious to sit down and work with them and the legislature toward our common goal: high-quality, affordable health care that is accessible to all Californians.

JOSEPH T. BROPHY, President, Travelers, Hartford, Conn.