BILL NUMBER: SB 236 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 19, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senators Runner, Ackerman, Aanestad, and Cox
FEBRUARY 14, 2007
An act relating to health care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 236, as amended, 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. The bill would declare
that the Legislature shall enact specified legislation and would
declare the Legislature's intent to accomplish specified acts in
order to improve access and affordability to health care.
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.
SEC. 2. (a) The Legislature shall enact
legislation, in order to improve access and affordability to health
care for Californians, to do the following:
(1) Allow employers who offer health insurance coverage to their
employees to enter into employer-employee agreed upon flex-time work
schedules.
(2) Allow hospitals to offer "preventive health services only"
coverage where the actual care is delivered through a hospital's
primary care or community-based clinics.
(3) Allow nurse practitioners to establish and run primary care
clinics.
(4) Provide a partial tax credit directly to providers for the
cost of providing care to the uninsured.
(5) Realign and extend health care coverage for the "uninsurable"
population by using Proposition 99 (the Tobacco Tax and Health
Protection Act of 1988) funds.
(6) Conform California's laws to federal law with respect to
providing tax deductions for businesses and individuals who use
health savings accounts.
(7) Allow health care coverage benefit designs that conform to
existing federal requirements for Health Saving Accounts-eligible
High Deductible Health Plans.
(8) Provide a tax credit to employers who contribute to their
employees' Health Savings Accounts.
(9) Provide a tax credit for hospitals and physicians and surgeons
who purchase cost-saving and quality-improving technologies such as
electronic medical records and telemedicine and establish a
low-interest loan program to assist nonprofit hospitals and medical
groups make health care technology purchase.
(10) Establish a new prioritization system that will focus on
seismically retrofitting the most at-risk hospitals first.
(11) Require the Department of Managed Health Care and the
Department of Insurance to allow health care service plans and health
insurers increased flexibility regarding product design, including,
but not limited to, co-payments, deductibles, networks, mandates, and
benefits so that health care service plans and health insurers can
better and more quickly respond to consumer demand for affordable
products that provide health care coverage and benefits appropriate
to specific segments of the population.
(12) Allow rate flexibility in the small market to consider
lifestyle behaviors in order to offer more affordable health care
coverage options.
(13) Require the Public Employees' Retirement System to offer high
deductible health care service plans and health savings accounts to
state employees.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to do all the following in
order to improve access and affordability to health care for
Californians:
(1) Reallocate Proposition 10 (the California Families and
Children Act of 1998) funding and direct all funds to children's
health care initiatives provided by First 5 California pursuant to
Division 108 of the Health and Safety Code.
(2) Redirect a majority of the funding currently dedicated to
state-only programs that provide health care services to uninsured or
underinsured individuals to community clinics and health centers in
order to allow a greater number of low-income individuals who are
unable to purchase health care coverage and do not qualify for
government programs to receive primary care services.
(3) Increase Medi-Cal rates towards parity with Medicare rates
over the next eight fiscal years and make it a first priority to
increase the rates that are currently the lowest.
(4) Direct a portion of the $2 billion allocated annually to
disproportionate share hospitals to be used towards additional clinic
creation and expansion.
(5) Require hospitals and providers for different health services
to make pricing information become more readily available for
consumers.
(6) Align Medi-Cal more closely with private health care benefits
and require the Department of Health Care Services to make the
changes needed to accomplish this and seek the necessary federal
waivers.
(7) Call on the federal government to pay for the mandated health
care costs for illegal immigrants.
(8) Make available health care coverage be driven by market demand
rather than regulatory restrictions.
(9) Encourage employers to offer their employees pretax Section
125 plans.