LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Healthcare response

To the Editor:

On 1-11-22, you published an article entitled “California: Tax hikes for universal health care?”

We had Proposition 186 for universal, single payer health care for all Californians on the ballot in 1992. It was defeated with the same misleading “facts” about increased taxes without mentioning the decreased personal expenses resulting in a net savings for all Californians. The article you published was trying to do the same.

The state analysts of 2017 are not talking about CalCare! This article wants to tarnish AB1400 with facts from 4 years ago.

The proposed funding for AB1400 will only tax businesses after their first $2M in gross receipts. Small business will not be affected. No more businesses paying health benefits or Workman’s Comp. A tiny 1 percent tax on those who earn more than $49,900 and a small 1.25 percent payroll tax for businesses with 50 or more employees. Small business will no longer have to pay payroll taxes at all!

Personal income taxes on high earners. Those who earn less than $149,509 per year will pay nothing. No more paying premiums, co-pays or deductibles. No more out of network providers being denied coverage. No more denied claims.

All basic and necessary health care services provided at point of service for free, including medical, dental, hearing, vision, long-term care, and prescription drugs. Everyone will save money on health care while insurance industry profits are curtailed.

A just transition funding job training for those who will be laid off the current private health care industry is included. Many of the same type of jobs will be available in the single-payer system.

Once California passes a universal health care law, the state will become eligible to apply for Federal waivers to fund the single-payer system with diverted Medicare, Medi-Cal and Affordable Care Act funds.

Some people exclaim that the government can’t do anything right. Considering the track record of the private health care industry, it is obvious that private insurance doesn’t do it right, and they are subject to fraud and corruption. Private business has a goal of maximizing private profits. Government has a goal of serving the public. Which would you rather have managing your healthcare, a for profit business, or an organization designed to serve the public?

Considering the current state of our healthcare system with 3.2M Californians without medical insurance, many more who have insurance but don’t use it because they can’t pay the deductibles or co-pays, an ongoing pandemic in which medical bankruptcies are through the roof while survivors watch our loved ones be buried or continue with debilitating effects of “long COVID,” it is the moral imperative to do the right thing and protect the health and safety of all Californians with universal single-payer healthcare.

— Robin Sunbeam, RN, MSN, PHN, Member of National Nurses United, Ukiah