President's Letter, January 2007

Dear Friends,

Earlier this month, Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed a bold $12 billion plan for our fragile healthcare system.

Among other provisions, the governor's proposed health overhaul would:

• Require every Californian to have health insurance.
• Require employers with 10 or more workers to offer health benefits or pay 4% of the payroll to a coverage program.
• Extend government insurance for poor children to more families.
• Ban insurers from denying coverage because of medical conditions, occupation or age.

Before a final strategy can be turned into state law, our state legislators and many others will be debating the pros and cons of this plan. Regardless of the outcome, we support the Governor and our state legislators for taking on this difficult and challenging issue. We need to find a way for everyone to have access to healthcare.

We know from years of experience that when there is a large group of people with little or no access to care, everyone pays. People who can’t afford to see the doctor often wait too long to seek care, and by then, treatment can be costly and difficult. We see this played out daily among our low-income, uninsured patients.

Finding a way for everyone to have healthcare will not be easy but ultimately, it must be done. The Governor called our system “broken.” We hope we can all work together to find a way to repair it.

Sincerely,
Terry A. Bonecutter