THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!
What’s been happening on the healthcare front since California Senate Bill 770, which paves the way for a single-payer healthcare system, was passed last year? What’s the process and the timeline? What are the necessary next steps to winning single payer in the Golden State and why is it so important to achieving healthcare equity?
To find out we spoke to the one and only Michael Lighty, president of the Healthy California Now coalition and former healthcare constituency director for Bernie 2020.
SHOW NOTES
WE DISCUSS
There’s been a lot happening on the healthcare front in California, but it seems to be behind the scenes. Can you bring us up to date?
“It is a ‘behind the scenes’ process because the key dynamic, right, that SB 770 established, was to figure out the policy issues for actually designing what we want as a single-payer system.
“And so by the nature of that, you have to go through a policy development process and what the Department of Healthcare Services has done in California is contract with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to address key system design issues.
“At the same time, the SB 770 coalition established a policy work group so that we can provide our own perspective on key system design issues and the issues that will come up in waiver discussions with the federal government. So that process is currently underway.
“…UCLA consultants will present their report in November. They have done interviews with informants who are health policy experts to help them come up with recommendations and analyses of the key system design issues.
“…So there’s a lot going on and by its nature it has to be somewhat internal because that’s what the policy development process requires. However, once these reports are presented of course to the legislature, it then becomes a very public process. So, 2025 will look very different. – Michael Lighty
Why is all this background work so important? What’s its purpose?
“… the whole purpose of this is to answer all the questions that legislators have had about what will the federal government support, how do we finance [a California single payer plan], and then present a comprehensive proposal with the imprimatur of … the governor’s office for the legislature to consider knowing what the Feds will support and knowing what the recommendations are of the key health policy experts as well as stakeholder engagement.
“So that there’ll be plenty of opportunities in 2025 for the public to comment … it’ll be a very robust process of policy development, stakeholder input, agency work, and most important federal government input.” – Michael Lighty
Why is winning single payer so important to achieving healthcare equity?
“Well, unless you have a single standard of care with guaranteed benefits and coverage [that’s] the same … and unless you pay providers sufficiently so that they can maintain services and you don’t have hospitals closing in rural areas … you can’t have equitable health care.
“I mean, it’s just that simple. If you don’t guarantee health care on the same basis with the same coverage and benefits to everyone, then you’re going to have disparities. And even if you do that, there are going to be inherent disparities as a result of history and, and social determinants of health. And so you’re gonna have to address those as well.
“But unless you establish a truly, not just universal coverage, but a truly universal guarantee of health care and that people have the right to health services on the same basis, it cannot be equitable. And so that’s why it’s so essential to achieve health equity.” – Michael Lighty
Helpful Links
SB 770 Public Input Meeting. UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Friday 8/30/24, 9 am to 1 pm. Zoom Meeting, (Click Here) Registration Required.
SB 770, Health care: unified health care financing, Senator Scott Wiener and co-authors
SB 770, Better Health Care at Lower Costs, Guaranteed for All, Healthy California Now
Medicare for All Calculator, Healthy California Now
Disparities in Health and Health Care: 5 Key Questions and Answers, KFF
California, Oregon eye universal health coverage, Healthcare Dive
Introduction to History of California Single Payer Legislation and Movement: 1997-2024, Dan Hodges, Co-founder, Health Care for All California
Episode Transcript
Read the full episode transcript.
Biography: Michael Lighty
Michael Lighty, President, Healthy California Now, has organized, advocated and developed policy for single-payer, Medicare for All nationally and in California for over 30 years.
He is a founding Fellow of the Sanders Institute, and most recently, he was the Healthcare Constituency Director for Bernie 2020.
Formerly he was director of public policy for the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses United. He was lead policy analyst, a leader of Campaign for a Healthy California and testified on behalf of the single-payer bill, SB 562.
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