How Everyone Wins With CUHCYou might fit in several of the groups below. If you feel we have missed an important group of people, let us know. Some of the groups are not addressed yet, but soon will be. Consumers You will have more choice. You won’t be restricted to an insurance company’s “approved list” of doctors and providers. If you go to an emergency room, you won’t find it crowded with uninsured people who really just need a primary care doctor. More doctors and hospitals will move into underserved areas because there will be more paying business there, and the Health Insurance Agency may offer incentives. Service will improve and waiting times shorten in many areas. You will have good health coverage, and you will keep it no matter what. It’s true that you will be paying your fair share. But it will be affordable for your income, and it will be well worth it for the health care you will be entitled to. You will finally get good health care. You might live longer.In a word, security. Your coverage will be as good or better than what you have now, and you will keep it, no matter what. You will probably save money. All your neighbors will be paying their fair share, not depending on your inflated insurance payments and taxes. The insurance companies won’t be taking their bite. Your payments will be an affordable fraction of your income. You won’t have an insurance company deserting you when you most need it. Many people who start out with insurance end up in bankruptcy when high medical bills hit. You can change jobs or start your own business without worrying about health coverage or pre-existing conditions. Your children will continue to be covered when they reach adulthood. Although most children could be covered now by Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, many are not because their parents do not know how to apply. Also, these programs are facing cut-backs and more children may go uninsured. CHIRA will provide health insurance security for all children, as well as adults.
With luck, you will get old one day. When that happens – or if you should become sick or injured at any time during your life – you will need health care services. Without CHIRA, you will have to worry about affording and receiving the care you need. With CHIRA, you won’t. You will always be covered.
Looking for that first job? Working at a job that doesn’t provide for all
your health care needs? Traveling? Starting a new business? Have
an existing medical condition? No matter your situation, your
health care needs will be met. You have freedom of choice of providers. You choose from any licensed health care provider. You will not be limited to certain providers, as occurs today. All providers remain private and independent business people. You receive more comprehensive benefits. CHIRA delivers full inpatient and outpatient services by health facilities, medical, dental, mental health and emergency care, prescription drugs, acupuncture, chiropractic care, vision care, substance abuse treatment, and eyeglasses, among many other benefits. Preventative care is emphasized. You pay premiums according to your ability to pay. You pay premiums on a sliding scale based on the amount of your income. Even seniors on Medicare will be better off with CHIRA. Pharmaceuticals will be completely covered. There will be no complicated Part D with gaps in drug coverage. There will be no Part B payments. There will be no need for supplemental insurance. Retired seniors not yet old enough for Medicare will also get the same coverage. If you have insurance, you won’t have to worry about your old employer raising your portion of the payments. If you don’t have insurance, now you will. Physicians Better medicine. Doctors will have more freedom to practice medicine and see patients without concern over payment. Career satisfaction will improve. Less paperwork. Office overhead will decrease about 30% from simplifying the billing process. Good income. Your net income will be comparable to your present practice, or better, due to elimination of billing costs. Preservation of choice in payment options:
Fair compensation. Physician organizations will bargain with the public insurance agency to set reasonable fee schedules. Cost containment. Physicians will participate in mechanisms to control medical cost inflation, such as monitoring for extreme practice patterns, and setting overall limits on regional spending.
Back to top You will be paid for every patient. You won’t need to staff a huge accounting department. Billing will be simple- electronic billing to one plan. You can even have a global budget with no billing. You won’t need to hire collection agencies to chase after your uninsured patients. You won’t need to charge paying patients extra to compensate for uninsured patients, or for low payments by insurance companies or Medicare. You can locate in a poor district and do as well financially as in a wealthy district.You can handle true emergency cases instead of filling up with uninsured patients who really should be seeing a primary care doctor. You
won’t
be forced to close because your patients can’t afford to pay you. Breaks the link between employment and health care. You will no longer be responsible for selecting health plans to offer, negotiating terms, and telling your employees the bad news each year about rising costs and reduced coverage. Get back to spending your time and resources on your business! Improves labor morale. No more difficult negotiations and threatened strikes over health insurance. Creates a level playing field among employers. Employees and employers will participate equally and fairly. Delivers freedom of choice of providers. California residents choose from any licensed health care provider. All providers remain private and independent business people. Temporary and part-time workers will be covered the same as others. The complications of covering these workers will disappear. There will be less disincentive to upgrade workers to full-time.
Controls costs. Health care inflation is controlled by efficient administration, global health care budgets, bulk purchases of drugs and durable medical equipment, coordination of capital expenditures, and increases tied to objective factors. These are real, market-based measures that work. Establishes efficient administration. Provider, patient, and employer overhead costs are slashed – and huge savings result. Promotes entrepreneurship and employee productivity. CHIRA removes the fear of crippling health care costs and the uncertainty of obtaining coverage. This allows the entrepreneurial brilliance of Californians to shine even brighter. And, better job mobility means higher productivity. Creates a dynamic health care marketplace. There are currently 6.5 to 7 million Californians without health insurance and millions more with less than adequate coverage. Enlarging the demand for services will offer tremendous economic opportunities to businesses of all kinds. California would become the center of health care delivery innovation and research. Makes us competitive with the world. U.S. employers pay more for health coverage than employers in other industrialized nations and our employees get less. Example: Due to higher health care costs, an automobile built in the U.S. costs $1,400 more than the same car built in other countries. Proven to be economically sound. In a recent study, the Lewin Group, an independent consulting firm, calculated that CHIRA will save California hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. Finally, an easy way to cover farm workers. Farmers have been struggling for years to find a feasible method of covering their seasonal workers on a slim margin of profit. Save money. Health premiums for farmers and farm workers will cost a lot less than private insurance. More fair to farmers. Health premiums will be proportional to payroll, not to the number of employees. Farmers employ mainly lower-wage workers, so the savings will be large. Ideal for farm workers. Temporary and part-time workers will also be covered without complicated paperwork. No other system will provide affordable health care for farm workers and their families. Less paperwork. Farmers will have no health care paperwork, and no need to shop for insurance. Health insurance security. Health coverage will be guaranteed for everyone, not subject to the uncertainties of the employment-based system. No gaps. You will keep your coverage if you get laid off, quit, move to another job, or start working for yourself. Family coverage. Your family is covered, not just you, no matter where you are employed. Even your grown children do not lose their coverage when they are no longer your dependents. Excellent benefits. The benefits covered are as good or better than any offered by private plans. Easier negotiations. Your union will no longer need to fight with management to keep good health coverage. Your employers will be saving money, which can be passed on to you. School districts will save money on employee health care. The premiums will be thousands of dollars less per employee. Better employee relations. The contentious health insurance issue will be removed from labor contract negotiations. Morale will improve. Healthy students. All students will have good health coverage. This will reduce illness and improve attendance and learning readiness. Improved mental health. CHIRA will pay for mental health care. Good mental health care at an early age will prevent many student problems. Local governmentsLocal governments will save money on employee health care. The premiums will be thousands of dollars less per employee. Better employee relations. The contentious health insurance issue will be removed from labor contract negotiations. Save hospitals. Rural and inner city hospitals that are struggling because they are required to treat patients who cannot pay, will be compensated for all the work they perform. This will save some hospitals from bankruptcy and closing, and improve service in others. Reducedcrime & dependency. CHIRA will pay for mental health care, which currently often goes untreated. This will reduce crime, drug dependency, and homelessness. Increased prosperity and tax base. Businesses will also enjoy savings and improved employee relations. This will give California a more attractive business climate. |