September 2007 Vol. 26. No. 9

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

New Alzheimer’s Center
Did California speak?
Senior Fraud Alert
Driver Safety fall schedule
Think About It, Show up, make a difference
Unsung heroes: Senior employees appreciated
Ferndale: Bocce court is shaping up

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Did California speak?
by Barbara Clark

In the next few weeks the state legislature may attempt to discuss and approve legislation to address the challenges presented by so many uninsured folks in California.

I participated in the big electronic town meeting Aug. 11 called California Speaks, in which some 3,500 people randomly selected in eight cities around the state discussed their values about health care. Humboldt County was the only rural county represented.

The meeting was steered towards the governor’s proposed solution to health care delivery, a proposal that has not yet been authored in the state legislature. Another proposal was an integral part of the conversation, AB 8 (Nuñez/Perata). Later in the day, Sheila Kuehl’s single payer SB 840, already approved by the Senate, came up for discussion.

The group first discussed the common values it felt should drive delivery of health care services. This discussion — and voting on preferences — was done by immediate electronic feedback into laptop computers and hand-held machines linked to the system. This meant that instantly all 3,500 people’s opinions could be registered and preferences sorted into a hierarchy. In our meeting at HSU’s West Gym, loaded with some 400 people, people at each table expressed their opinions on all these topics and views were entered into the computer simultaneously.

Four common values were the top values from all the sites — • health care should be affordable to all and not depend on the amount of money someone has; • everyone should have access to health care; • we should put people before profit and keep greed out of the health care system; • we should make wellness and prevention a priority.

These values and all of the results from the day-long discussions are available to read at www.californiaspeaks.org.

We like to criticize our legislature for not doing its job — but in this case, the California legislature has done its job. Last year it approved — and the governor vetoed — SB 840, which would insure that all Californians have universal access to health care, including preventive care, and would create a single payer system like Medicare. Citizens and businesses would all would pool the funds we’re now paying for insurance and health care appointments into a government pool, making the State of California the insurer.

At our discussion table Aug. 11, one small business owner said that the proposed cost of SB 840 to her business would have been less than she paid for employee health coverage. The plan is ready to be implemented. What should happen next?

Barbara is editor of Senior News.