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Gavin Newsom on Health CareS.F. Mayor; former Gov. cand. |
Few issues united the four Republicans on stage like their disdain for public health mandates. "I happen to have great faith in the ability of people to make decisions of their own," said Doug Ose, who spoke with the technical knowledge of a longtime lawmaker and a table-pounding indignation. "Instead of giving people mandates, we need to give them options."
People are alive today because of the public health decisions we made--lives saved because of your sacrifice. Even so, I acknowledge it's made life hard and unpredictable, and you're exhausted with all of it.
Policy is an empty promise without creating more placements. One clear opportunity to do this is by reforming the Mental Health Services Act. Reform must focus funding on street homeless, at-risk and foster youth, and those involved in the criminal justice system. We should compel counties to spend more by lowering the 33% reserve threshold they are allowed to hold back. My message is this: spend your mental health dollars by June 30th, or we'll make sure they get spent for you.
Consider the national attention it garnered when Newsom signed an executive order in March halting executions-- sparing 737 people on California's death row. Witness the proclamation his office wrote last month "welcoming women to California to fully exercise their reproductive rights" after a wave of conservative states took steps to limit abortion. Newsom is outspoken on immigration, traveling to El Salvador earlier this year in his first international trip as governor.
"We're going to get it,'' Newsom insists. "We're committed to universal health care. Universal health care means everybody--We will lead a massive expansion of health care, and that's a major deviation from the past.''
Promote Universal Access and Quality in Health Care
That more than 40 million Americans lack health insurance is one of our society’s most glaring inequities. Lack of insurance jeopardizes the health of disadvantaged Americans and also imposes high costs on everyone else when the uninsured lack preventive care and get treatment from emergency rooms. Washington provides a tax subsidy for insurance for Americans who get coverage from their employers but offers nothing to workers who don’t have job-based coverage.
Markets alone cannot assure universal access to health coverage. Government should enable all low-income families to buy health insurance. Individuals must take responsibility for insuring themselves and their families whether or not they qualify for public assistance.
Finally, to help promote higher quality in health care for all Americans, we need reliable information on the quality of health care delivered by health plans and providers; a “patient’s bill of rights” that ensures access to medically necessary care; and a system in which private health plans compete on the basis of quality as well as cost.
