Assemblyman Nakanishi talks about health care crisis at town hall

Right to the Point
by Geoffrey Sakala

There were more than two dozen Rancho Cordova residents at the Rancho Cordova police department to hear Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi speak on health care tonight. Mayor David Sander hosted the event and introduced the Assemblyman from Lodi. Nakanishi is an ophthalmologist who knows a thing or two about health care. The Republican vice chair of the assembly health care committee shared his views on the health care crisis and fielded questions from the audience on a wide range of topics.

Assemblyman Nakanishi talks health care in Rancho Cordova

Many of the citizens in attendance had some tough questions for the Assemblyman. One woman stated, “the cost of health insurance is too high. I spent 2 hours in the emergency room and was charged $2,500″. Another proclaimed, “the middle class is becoming the new poor”. The questions and discussion were lively and Assemblyman Nakanishi handled them well. It’s clear that the issue of healthcare is not an easy one to solve. There are many difficult decisions ahead for the state and Governor Schwarzenegger. Some of the thorny issues include rampant fraud, high insurance rates, and the fact that the federal government under ERISA outlaws state mandated employer payroll taxes to pay for employee coverage. So the difficult questions still remain. Who will be covered by the proposed plans and who will pay for it all.

The estimated cost of the Governors plan would be 22 billion dollars per year. He had proposed to pay for this with tobacco taxes and by selling the state lottery agency. Currently, Californians are covered by medicare, for those over the age of 65, medical for low income citizens, the healthy families law covers children near the poverty line and employers cover approximately 52% of those with health coverage. Right now in California we have approximately 6.7 million uninsured citizens. Emergency rooms are overcrowded and being forced to close their doors due to absorbing the high cost of uninsured people. One gentlemen at the town hall exclaimed, “I have insurance and if I have a catastrophic injury or illness, I could lose my house, my car, my business, everything, but the uninsured has nothing to lose and they are treated with the same care”. Clearly, cases like these happen all too often.

Nakanishi explained to the audience that the issue will be taken up again on December 5th and 6th in the legislature. There are many bills and health care plans to consider. The Governor has a plan. Speaker Nunez has a plan. The Democrats have a plan and so do the Republicans. With so many plans and competing interests it appears that this issue will be debated for some time into the future. One thing is certain though, you have not heard the last about health care in the state of California.