State Health Bill Gives Consumers Choices

James Knight (“Health Savings Accounts Can Be Good Deals,” Letters, Aug. 7) is right to denounce “last ditch, politically motivated disinformation campaigns,” but I wouldn’t beat that particular drum too loudly if I were he, not when it comes to healthcare.

As chief executive of Consumer Directed Health Care Inc., Knight has a direct interest in promoting the sort of bargain basement insurance “plans” that, most consumers find out too late, offer inadequate or no protection at those times when their buyers find themselves desperately in need of healthcare.

Knight engages in his own disinformation campaign, as well, by stating that single-payer universal healthcare will require “$100 billion in new taxes.”

This is completely inaccurate. The plan set forth by my bill, SB 840, would require one yearly means-based premium, to be paid into the new California Health Plan, which would take the place of all premiums, co-pays and deductibles now paid by California employers and workers.

Under SB 840, which was passed this year by the California Senate and the Assembly Health Committee, patients have access to the doctors of their own choosing, medical decisions are made by doctors based on the best interests of patients, and costs are held down by concentrating capital expenditures on healthcare itself. You can’t get more consumer-driven than that.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl

Santa Monica