Nunez and Legislators Urged to Oppose Mandatory Purchase of Private Health...(Court's Los Angeles Times Op-Ed critiqui...),Health

In the letter FTCR raised the following 6 point critique with the mandatory purchase scheme:

1. At $12,000 a year for family coverage, mandatory purchase of private insurance is unaffordable -- particularly without regulation.

2. Mandatory purchase of private insurance will lead to more high- deductible, bare-bones policies.

3. Taxpayer subsidies without price caps will feed insurers' profit demands and overhead.

4. Those who need coverage the most would face an uncertain future.

5. Mandatory purchase of private insurance will uninsure some of those who currently have coverage.

6. Rate regulation, not the mandatory purchase of private insurance, is the first step to major reform.

LETTER TO LEGISLATURE:

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez

Majority Leader Karen Bass

Assemblymembers Hector De La Torre

Mervyn Dymally

Patty Berg

Mark DeSaulnier

Ed Hernandez

Mary Hayashi

RE: Oppose Any Proposal that Forces Californians to Buy Private Insurance

We are writing to urge you to oppose mandatory purchase of private insurance as part of the legislative compromise on health care. Forcing Californians to buy private health insurance is unacceptable.

A mandatory purchase regime, particularly one without vigorous cost controls and premium regulation, amounts only to a customer delivery system for the fragmented, wasteful private insurance market. It will not solve California's health care problems and will only encourage the industry to demand more money in taxpayer subsidies and premium costs while providing less health care.

Proponents of mandatory purchase, a plan first conceived of by health insurance companies, say yo
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