Health Reform, California-Style : Garamendi plan is making a lot of friends

The Legislature has been collecting health-reform bills all spring, hoping to blend them this summer into a program that California can afford and Sacramento can agree on.

The latest proposal into the hopper is a March entry by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi that still seems to cover more of the essential needs in health care than any of its competitors. There are two more to come before the conferees start pulling the best from each bill and trying to reach consensus on legislation that could bring early relief to millions of Californians who face a health-care crisis every day of their lives.

We think the most recent bill, AB 502, sponsored by Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), should move out under its own power. Any blending that needs to be done can be accomplished by a study commission that the bill would create.

The Garamendi/Margolin bill would bind cost increases to wage increases generally, make it impossible for insurance companies to jettison people with serious illnesses and extend health insurance to 6 million Californians who cannot now afford health care.

The commission’s task would be to take a year to look around for better ways--if any--to meet the goals set forth in the bill itself and to pay the costs of universal health care for Californians.

The plan calls for a payroll tax of 6.5% on employers and 1% on employees. With cost containment and radical changes in workers compensation, sponsors say total savings in health costs would start at $1 billion a year.

The commission would provide a workable forum for business, insurance and medical interests to work out their differences without losing the year that would simply vanish if the legislative process had to start all over next year.

Business in particular should take a hard look at what Garamendi proposes to slow down sharply the costs of health care that are rising virtually out of control.

The goals of the California Health Reform Act of 1992 do not differ in any important ways from those of a plan being promoted in Washington by the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform, which has widespread support among major American corporations.

One of the coalition plan’s supporters is Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), whose demand for health-care reform won him a stunning upset in a special election last year.

Last week, Wofford also said that the Garamendi/Margolin plan should be the model for other states.

But first Sacramento needs to give those states something they can follow.