Countywide : Task Force to Study Health Care Options

The Orange County Health Care Task Force on Thursday agreed to launch a study to determine whether agencies can work together to provide affordable health care for all county residents.

The study, proposed by County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, chairwoman of the task force, will seek a countywide master health care network plan that would reduce costs, so that anyone in the county may have access to basic health services.

Care for indigents, the newly unemployed and other residents lacking health coverage would be accommodated in the plan envisioned, Wieder said.

By linking the county’s clinics, hospitals, physicians and other available resources, Wieder believes the county may be able to dramatically cut many health care costs.

“We can’t just throw money at this problem, because that’s not going to solve it,” Wieder said. “We have to manage what we’ve got better, handle our resources better, and cut costs that way.”

Such a plan would also seek to ease the burden placed upon emergency rooms, she said.

As health care costs have escalated and more residents lack health insurance, many low-income residents go to emergency rooms for basic health services. The task force hopes to find ways to divert many of those patients to other agencies and facilities, Wieder said.

“We’re not only looking at the indigent patient, but the big picture here in health care access,” she said. “There are a number of people working who are not insured. And that’s a huge population.”

Asked whether it is realistic to provide universal health care for all Orange County residents--tackling a national problem for which there have been no immediate solutions--Weider replied: “Sure it is. There’s no alternative.”

She pointed to a newly created county program serving pregnant, indigent women, called Maternity Outreach Medical Assistance. Under that program, the more patients who are served, the greater the savings, Wieder said.

“That’s an exact example to justify what I’m talking about when I say universal health care management.”

The study is being done by Elizabeth Owen, a Livermore-based consultant hired last month to handle the task force’s case management. Owen is being paid $168,000 for about six months of service.

Owen will study all of the county’s health care services and determine how they might combine services or eliminate duplicated services. In addition, Owen will examine potential corporate funding.

The study is expected to take four to five months to complete.

Wieder said she is pushing for state legislation that would regulate insurance companies to make health coverage more affordable and available to more residents.