The Trouble with Health Care in California

 

Yes, SB 562 the single payer bill supported by our incumbent state senator is still ready to advance through the legislature even though the speaker of the assembly decided to give it an impasse. The nurse’s union, Gavin Newsom and my incumbent are deluded to think that single payer will be the salvation for the people of our state and my district.

I agree that people in the 20th State Senate District want improved access to health care and services. Our district is one of the top fourth of those not doing that well economically and people are thirsty for a solution even if it wrecks the health care infrastructure.

It is a mistake that our incumbent voted for this bill when the provisions were not fully explained. Single payer may be the red meat for the supporters of the incumbent, but the principles of the legislation are not going to be sustainable. It will not be like a buffet lunch at a top Las Vegas casino with SB 562 which the proponents are trying to tell the state it will become where they state that you can get all the services you need with no co-payments, deductibles, or insurance premiums and they will not care about your residency status in the country either. However, you will be paying more taxes in exchange for an increased role of the state in health care.

With so many people wanting health care its highly likely that the infrastructure will be stressed. The budget will be rationed just as much as private sector health insurance programs. It will not be like cake and ice cream for all. We must come up with an estimated 400 billion dollars a year to fund this program yearly. To help come up with the funding the Democrats in our state who have been resisting the Republicans will have to convince them to surrender Medicare and Medicaid money to the state of California if they keep control of the presidency or either chamber of the legislature in the coming years. Senior citizens will be reluctant to sacrifice the federal maintained program in exchanged for the California managed program. How will we be funding this severely costly program that will cost more than four Jerry Brown rail systems each year was the most integral part that the authors Atkins and Lara failed to share to the public. Continue reading “The Trouble with Health Care in California”

Low Expectations In Education Must End

It all began with the elimination of the California High School Exit Examination where former Senator Carol Liu suspended the high school exit examination until the end of this current school year in 2015 in SB 172. How will we know how students are doing and did our students learn during their time as high school students was the big concern of many Californians. The 2018-2019 school year is approaching, and it seems there is no replacement for the CAHSEE for our students that are based on the new Common Core standards that California utilizes.

It is perceived that suspending the exit examination was simply just a way to mask low graduation rates in our schools. We should figure out why our students are not learning, we are spending a big chunk of our state budgets on K-12 education and we should make sure that our students are doing their reading, writing and mathematics up to a reasonable level. One of my policy suggestions is to pilot reading programs in the high schools so we can improve reading skills of our students as an elective or required class depending on one’s skill level. If students can comprehend the material that they are learning they should be successful.

Recently this year the California State University is joining the low expectations parade. The leader of the CSU Timothy White wants to eliminate placement exams and remedial classes to help students get to standards in the university. Placement exams have been used in the Community College system to help students take the right classes for their needs, so they do not take classes that are not too advanced or too basic which helps save students and taxpayers money. Timothy White may feel that waiving the requirements may accelerate graduation of our students where they may not linger in the system longer, but maybe we should give students better class registration if they comply with placement exams and make sure they go through advising each quarter or semester. The action against placement exams seems very irrational. Continue reading “Low Expectations In Education Must End”