Imagine you are enduring excruciating abdominal pain so severe it forces you to rush to the emergency room. When diagnostic tests conclude it’s ovarian cysts, not an appendicitis, as you feared, your insurance company informs you that they won’t cover the staggering $12,596 bill.

That happened to a Kentucky woman who is “covered” by Anthem, an insurer Californians know well. Anthem is adopting a new policy to deny ER claims it deems “non-urgent,” no matter how long you have been paying for insurance that is apparently useless when you need it the most.

Welcome to our dysfunctional and often heartless health care system, based on profits and ability to pay, and laden with discrimination based on gender, race, age, income and where you live.

There is a humane alternative pending in the state Legislature: Senate Bill 562 would implement a single-payer health care system in California.

It would guarantee coverage for all Californians, and eliminate premiums, as well as deductibles, co-pays, “out of network” costs and insurance denials — all of which make far too many forgo needed care or face devastating medical bills when they go to the doctor or ER.

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Savings from a single-payer system — with reduced paperwork and without insurance company profits and lucrative executive pay packages — and the state’s ability to use its bulk purchasing power to lower drug costs would reduce overall spending. No other proposed “cost containment” starts with $37.5 billion in savings, as SB 562 does, and then reins in prices and costs most effectively.

A California Nurses Association-commissioned study described additional revenues that would reduce what nearly every California family and business now pays for health care while assuring health security for the 15 million Californians who today have no health coverage or pay for insurance so expensive they regularly skip needed care.

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Elected leaders who claim they favor universal coverage should make the health security of Californians a top priority. They should act now on real reform.

Malinda Markowitz is a San Jose registered nurse and co-president of the California Nurses Association.