BILL NUMBER: SB 236	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senators Runner, Ackerman, Aanestad, and Cox

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2007

   An act relating to health care.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 236, as introduced, Runner. Health care: Cal CARE program.
   Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975,
provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service
plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law also
provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of
Insurance. Under existing law, an employer in this state is not
required to provide health care coverage for its employees, and
residents are not required to obtain and maintain such coverage for
themselves.
   This bill would express the Legislature's intent to enact the Cal
CARE program to improve access to health care services for the
residents of this state, as specified.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:
   (1) Cal CARE is a program that will improve the current health
care system in this state and provide the most effective means of
making health care more affordable and accessible to the residents of
California.
   (2) Cal CARE will create more consumer options and cultivate
marketplace competition by eliminating regulatory hurdles in the
health care system.
   (3) Cal CARE will provide new incentives for hospitals and private
industry to increase the number of primary care clinics, thereby
improving accessibility to health care services in rural and
medically underserved areas of this state. It will also provide less
expensive alternatives to treatment provided by emergency rooms,
which treatment contributes to increasing health care costs.
   (4) Cal CARE will increase the number of Californians with health
care coverage by offering incentives to employers who offer health
care coverage to their employees, and it will prioritize funding for
children's health care initiatives provided by First 5 California
pursuant to Division 108 of the Health and Safety Code.
   (5) Cal CARE will require Californians to take personal
responsibility for their health care, providing an individual the
same tax benefits as an employer who provides health care coverage to
its employees.
   (6) Cal CARE will not require Californians to pay for health care
provided to illegal immigrants and will bill the federal government
for the costs California taxpayers already must pay for illegal
immigrants' health care.
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact the Cal CARE
program to improve access to health care services for the residents
of this state.