Steve Burd, the Chairman of the Board of Safeway stores, should be ashamed of himself. Why? Because the Safeway chain of stores was founded and was able to grow into a massive company because of the free market system, and a form of government in this country that is geared towards limiting the role of government. Now Burd has decided that businesses, large and small, all across California, should be burdened with new employer-based mandates on healthcare, and apparently believes that healthcare for Californians will somehow improve by going down the path of countries such as Great Britain and Canada.
Burd is leading a group called the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, which is made up of big businesses that have apparently decided to throw in with efforts of Democrats in Sacramento to inject government mandates and rules into a government-directed healthcare ‘solution’, aided by a Governor who has proposed billions of dollars in tax increases, and has taken to using the phrase "shared responsibility" as a moniker for saying that it is the government, not individuals, who are responsible for their health and health care.
Everyone agrees that the costs associated with health care have skyrocketed, and that something needs to be done about it. But when we look to reasons for why it costs so much, in many areas it is BECAUSE of government intervention that costs are high. We need to take a comprehensive look at how to increase the role of the free market in lowering healthcare insurance costs. By lowering the costs of healthcare through real competition and a real first-party payer system where consumers and healthcare providers are determining the price of services, many more will be able to afford insurance. And, of course, we need to come up with a solution to deal with those who choose, despite available resources, to not purchase insurance. But these solutions, which probably need to include a federal component, should be geared towards ensuring that those who can afford it, and choose not to take out insurance, are declined benefits.
Anyways, yesterday there was a press conference held by Burd, with Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines attended the event, and deserves credit for using the opportunity to caution those approaching this issue that someone needs to be looking out for small businesses, that will be hit hard by new employer-based mandates.
But State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman deserves a TON OF CREDIT for choosing to NOT ATTEND this press event put on by Burd. In refusing to participate in the event, Ackerman released the following statement:
The universal health care proposals are a dangerous experiment with the health care system for more than 30 million Californians and the state’s competitive and job-creating economy.Universal health care will not address the core problems with California’s health care system. Mandating coverage comes with dire consequences including increasing demands upon existing shortages of doctors, nurses, and hospitals, reducing both access to care and its overall quality, and provides no guarantee of lower costs or any cost controls.
The universal health care proposals do promise, however, more regulations on health care providers and higher taxes for everyone – doctors, hospitals, and the small businesses that create most of California’s new jobs.
Senate Republicans believe the less dangerous, more responsible and more effective path for getting more Californians insured is to provide more flexible, affordable, and accessible options to consumers. We know we can accomplish this by reducing unnecessary regulatory hurdles, expanding the use community clinics for non-emergencies and preventative care, and reprioritizing resources for increased efficiencies throughout the health care system.
The Senate Republican plan empowers individuals to be responsible for their own health care by lowering costs and providing more coverage choices—without raising taxes.
We must find innovative solutions, not rehash bad ideas—universal health care is not the answer.
The challenges that we have with healthcare nationally and in California will only become worse under proposals by the Democrats, Schwarzenegger, and Burd.
California policymakers should oppose efforts to increase government’s role in healthcare for two reasons — the pragmatic reason is that history has shown that government involvement will increase costs over the long-haul — and the other reason, a more principled one, is that socialized healthcare is simply immoral, and wrong.
I will close by providing a link to a great column by FR Bay Area Correspondent Jennifer Nelson, that appears in the San Francisco Chronicle today.
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