California Insurer Urges Universal Health Coverage

To avert an impending crisis, California must ensure that all its residents have health insurance by requiring employers to contribute and by imposing a broad-based tax, the chief executive of one of the state’s biggest insurers said Tuesday.

Bruce Bodaken, CEO of Blue Shield of California, which covers 2.3 million people, unveiled his plan in San Francisco.

California’s Medicaid program ranks last among states in spending per enrolled patient, paying physicians less than half of what they receive from private insurers.

As a result, fewer than 50% of California’s doctors participate, Bodaken said. Adding to the state’s woes, only 61% of employers offer health insurance.

Bodaken said universal health insurance could be achieved by requiring employers to provide coverage or contribute toward an essential benefits package. The state also should enroll every eligible resident in its Medi-Cal or Healthy Families health plans.

The state should require anyone who can afford insurance to buy it and subsidize those who cannot, Bodaken said.

California, in cooperation with independent health-care professionals, should design and provide an essential benefits package that would guarantee preventive care, physician services, hospital care and prescription drugs, he said.

The state should seek to save money by encouraging preventive care and earlier treatment of the formerly uninsured and by cutting back on the use of emergency rooms and ensuring that doctors are paid for care provided to the uninsured, he said.

Much of the cost of the program would be paid for by imposing a “modest, broad-based tax or fee,” Bodaken said, without specifying the type of tax.