by Brian Dahle
1st District Assemblyman
This week, the state Legislature came together on a bipartisan health care funding plan that ensures more of Californians’ federal tax dollars return to their communities, even as it lowers state taxes, pays down state debts, and – critical to the North State – will relieve burdensome debts of six rural critical-access hospitals in the region.
I fought hard to ensure that the plan doesn’t raise insurance premiums for Californians, and actually guarantees a net tax cut of more than $100 million.
How did we get here? Last year the Obama administration decided that a state tax on managed care plans no longer qualified for federal matching dollars for the Medi-Cal system. This blew a billion-dollar hole in a system whose payments are already so low that few private doctors will see Medi-Cal patients and hospitals that serve large Medi-Cal populations struggle to stay open.
The Governor called a special session of the Legislature to solve this problem. In some circles, the quick answer was to raise taxes. I did not come to Sacramento to raise taxes.
Through long negotiations, we arrived at a financing overhaul that reforms the system while cutting net state taxes by $100 million. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – which has been fighting for California taxpayers for decades – does not oppose this package.
Working across party lines, we managed to avoid disruptive cuts to Medi-Cal. By bringing federal dollars back to California – which currently only gets 68 cents back for every dollar its residents send to Washington – we can use hundreds of millions of dollars to pay down the state’s pension debts and restore critically needed transportation funding.
This package also puts new money into helping Californians with developmental disabilities such as autism or cerebral palsy. By putting $300 million back into services that were cut during the recession, we can preserve community programs that help these neighbors of ours live independently and with dignity.
And for rural communities in the North State, the package forgives debt – based on unfair, retroactive budget cuts – of a number of hospitals that operate skilled nursing facilities. In the 1st Assembly District, these hospitals serve Cedarville, Alturas, Fall River Mills, Chester, Portola and Truckee – where they offer the only emergency rooms and other acute-care services for many miles around, and do so on the leanest of budgets. By relieving more than $11 million in debt, we’re giving these hospitals financial breathing room so they can focus on treating the sick instead of stopping their own red ink.
In the end, this package protects California health care consumers and providers, reduces taxes, pays down state debts, and protects our most vulnerable residents. This bipartisan compromise is what Californians expect and deserve from their elected leaders.
