San Francisco proposes LOCAL UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - A model for America

This could be a model for American cities everywhere, and county governments as well. If SF can do it, why not the whole country?? This is from TIME magazine, dated today:

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Friday, Jun. 23, 2006
San Francisco's Latest Innovation: Universal Health Care
With an ambitious new plan, the city hopes to provide a nationwide model that grants health access to all
By LAURA A. LOCKE/SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a habit of treading where other elected officials are loath to go. First, he took on same-sex marriage. Now Newsom is angling again to bestow city residents with rights that Americans living elsewhere don't have. San Franciscans, he announced this week, are poised to become the first recipients of universal health care. This means uninsured city dwellers will gain access to basic medical services they otherwise couldn't afford. While not free, the care will come at sharply reduced costs. Enrollment fees will range from $3 to $201, depending on participants' incomes. Most, however, will pay $35 a month—far less than what HMOs typically charge.

It's part of an unprecedented program called "San Francisco Health Access Plan," which Newsom hammered out with labor, business, and city leaders. More than 82,000 San Franciscans who lack health insurance and do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid stand to benefit. The majority are employed adults (children already have access to subsidized care); others are unemployed, self-employed, homeless, or have pre-existing conditions like diabetes, AIDS or cancer; some are even undocumented (yes: illegal) workers. Starting in early 2007, every uninsured San Franciscan can seek comprehensive primary care at the city's public and private clinics and hospitals, including top research facilities like the University of California at San Francisco. Coverage includes lab work, prescriptions, X rays, hospitalization and surgery. Annual funding for the $203 million program will come from re-routed city funds (including $104 million that now goes toward uninsured care via emergency rooms and clinics), business contributions and individual enrollment fees, which will be income-adjusted.

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Unlike medical insurance, San Francisco's health access program doesn't travel. It applies only to local residents who go for care within city and county limits. Emergency room visits outside San Francisco, for example, aren't covered. There's no dental or optometry coverage, and participants must be willing to apply for any state and federal benefits they are entitled to.

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Nevertheless, the thinking goes, if San Francisco's local plan for the uninsured takes off, it could be a model for other metropolitan regions nationwide. "This is a city that wants to right the proverbial wrongs," Newsom says. "We tend to march to the beat of our own drum and that, hopefully, is something that can awaken people's imaginations elsewhere."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,1207599,00.html

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What do you think of this new approach? It makes a lot of sense I think. Small businesses might need some breaks here but I think this could work. Put the newly insured in with the city or county insurance pool!

screwing the homeless people he promised to help and while he's helping the developers that got him elected do their magic in our city.

But, I just live here.

provides funds for access to medical care for those residents who are uninsured. So, whereas the city hospital would treat your infected cut at the usual outrageous ER rate, access to an urgent care clinic for stitches is significantly less costly. SF put together an amazing team of folks to research this and while they will no doubt have to iron out the kinks, it's a start. Getting rid of the "not for profit" (Ha!) insurance companies is a way to think differently about health care.

last three years.

I feel like the raven. But, as the main caretaker for a high maintenance uninsured partner who has never has a second of access myself, I won't hold my breathe.

It's the only way we're ever going to get all the insured covered in this country. It's the easiest plan possible, subsidized access to govt insurance. Fighting this common sense solution is the same as letting people die.

All the idea needs is momentum.

What a novel freakin' idea. Like, maybe we could all have subsidized access to the same health insurance our senators and congressmen have!! Oh my god, like where have I heard that before.

Sorry for my sarcasm, but that is uniquely John Kerry's plan and the left has been pissing all over it for the last 2 years. Gavin Newsom decides to implement it in San Francisco, and suddenly it's the idea of the century.

More people will want to move there to access healthcare...and having a city "do it alone" sets a tone in our mis-administration that says.. "see...private is better"..

I can see services and local taxes only going up..

I am happy for the folks who will now be able to see a doctor, but this is a finger in the dike...not a long-term solution...

That is the model for healthcare.