Healthy San Francisco. If Congress and the White House can't get their

[Cleita]

heads unstuck from corporate ass long enough to pass a health bill, which should be non-partisan and non-political because it is a life and death matter, maybe this is how we should do it, locally.

There was a caller into Ed Schultz's radio show today who was singing the praises of San Francisco's municipal health care plan. He said it cost an average of $60 a month and nothing if you couldn't afford it. He said there were no waiting room waits. Every health need was covered. He said since the program had gone into effect that the costs of health care had gone down as well.

Here is their website:http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/about_us/

Healthy San Francisco is an innovative program designed to make health care services accessible and affordable to uninsured San Francisco residents. It is operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH).

Healthy San Francisco is not insurance, but a reinvention of the San Francisco health care safety net, that will enable and encourage residents to access primary and preventive care. It provides a Medical Home and primary physician to each program participant, allowing a greater focus on preventive care, as well as specialty care, urgent and emergency care, laboratory, inpatient hospitalization, radiology, and pharmaceuticals.

It is the culmination of Mayor Newsom's 2005 State of the City pledge to provide universal health care access to the city's estimated 73,000 uninsured.

Here is a study about the satisfaction participants and residents are experiencing from the program and they seem to be really happy with it:

http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/files/PDF/HSF_Satisfaction_Survey_Kaiser.pdf

It seems the competition has lowered the rates of private insurance as well. Maybe this is the way to go. In a fairly rural county like mine, it probably would have to be done by county rather than by city, but I think it's worth a look at. Also, it might help for health care warriors like myself to focus on a smaller area rather than trying to get the attention from the ivory tower dwellers in corporate DC. Tell me what you think DUers.

[still_one]

1. The San Francisco plan is a crapy plan. 90% of the people who pay for it, don't even

qualify to be covered under it

[Cleita]

2. That's not what the caller said today.

So do you have any source to validate your claim?

Also, by design it covers the poor, the elderly and those not able to get proper insurance, but since the program went into effect, it has increased its access and expanded the demographics of people it covers. That doesn't sound like a plan that is failing to me.

[still_one]

5. Here is what it takes to qualify

http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/visitors/Who_Qualifies.aspx

Be sure and go through the form and answer the questions

You have to be unemployed for 90 days, and essentially cannot have any assets

I haven't checked it recently, but if you had any retirement or savings, it would have to be pretty much depleted before you qualify

I assume that is still the way it is

[Cleita]

7. I wouldn't qualify because I'm on Medicare but

it seems like it's picking up a lot of uninsured who don't qualify for Medicaid and those who have decent employer sponsored insurance. I think that's a real positive. It is described as a safety net and not an all out panacea and it seems to be filling that role. I know it isn't what other countries offer, but at least it's picking up a lot of those left in the cold that our nationwide system doesn't. I think it's worth a look.

[still_one]

10. I wasn't talking about anyone specific, just general. Actually, MediCal takes care of a lot

From what I understand it has no bang for the buck

Actually, single payer for all would be the best thing

[Cleita]

11. Of course it would, but we aren't getting anywhere near that in

Washington. I'm just thinking of ways of breaking the insurance beast so I'm looking at alternatives. It seems if we start getting some decent public plans locally and the idea spreads, it will be harder for the insurance cartel to swat us down because instead of one big fly, they are going to have to be all over the country trying to swat at smaller but more numerous flies. I usually like to look at systems that are operating and functional. This is how I came to the conclusion that Medicare for all would be good because it works in Canada, but *sigh*, the insurers know that too.

[still_one]

12. and that is why when they said including a buy-in at 55 would have been a great start

You are actually being practical and realistic, because that is probably where it will need to start, at the local level, because their is too much special interest money at the national level

[Luminous Animal]

15. You do not have to deplete your savings to qualify.

[ThomCat]

17. I would qualify and be able to get my healthcare for $150 per quarter

according to the website.

That is far,far,far better than the $600/month I pay now for my insurance plan, plus co-pays.

Unfortunately, I live in New York, not San Francisco.

[Cleita]

19. I pay an extra $300 dollars a month for drugs and Medicare copays,

if a plan that even cost $100 a month would cover me for the Medicare gaps, that would be great.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. The caller also says there are no waiting room waits.

That's utter bullshit.

[Cleita]

18. If it is then put up your sources to back your statement.

Right now it's his word against yours.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. My source is every big city emergency room waiting area in the United States.

Ever been to one? SF's health plan doesn't put you to the front of the line.

[Cleita]

21. Maybe a video or eyewitness accounts would work as a source?

[Luminous Animal]

23. It keeps nearly 10% of the population from using the emergency room

for primary care. Not only has it taken the pressure off of emergency rooms and the public hospital, it has decreased the public hospital's admittance rates and lengths of stay.

[Luminous Animal]

3. Healthy San Francisco has been a success but the press

and Newsom need to stop giving him sole credit for it.

Healthy San Francisco (under a previous name) was introduced by city Board of Supervisor Tom Ammiano (now in the state assembly) in 2005, after he did years of coalition work necessary to formulate the program and nearly all the legislative work necessary for its passage. While it is true that Newsom empaneled a study group, it was Ammiano who folded in some of their recommendations into his bill. Quite simply, Healthy San Francisco is Ammiano's success not Newsom's.

[Cleita]

4. Whatever you say, however, after everyone takes their bows

I want to know more about it and how others, like myself, can try to get a similar program in their locality. Thanks for telling me that it is a success.

[still_one]

6. Go through the questionarie and see if you would qualify

http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/visitors/Who_Qualifies.aspx

I know if you have saved 25000 dollars or more in a retirement or savings, you won't qualify. It might be lower, I never saw what the minimum was

[Luminous Animal]

8. I just entered 30,000 in savings.

Family of 3, 2 over 21, $4000 a month in income and I qualified.

[still_one]

9. I entered, 2000/month, 25000 savings and it wouldn't qualify.

[Luminous Animal]

14. 15000 in savings works.

And that seems right to me.

[Luminous Animal]

13. If you want a similar program, you should contact Ammiano.

Be forewarned, it will take many years and a lot of players... labor, citizens, doctors & nurses, and activists. Then be prepared for the lawsuits.

[Cleita]

22. Doesn't sound like fun but maybe there are people in my community

who might be up to the challenge. I have met some of them.

[Luminous Animal]

24. It has been such a success here that activists are working to make it regional.

We are thinking that we'd start with the "slow food" liberals in Marin and Napa counties then work on Oakland and Berkeley. Oakland needs it a whole lot more but the strategy is to bring in the well-heeled left leaning communities to fill the coffers then bring in the more impoverished one to avoid the usual, "I don't want to support those people with my tax dollars."

[Cleita]

25. I live two hundred miles south of you, and although, we do have a system

of very basic safety nets in my county, I think we could improve on it. We are a conservative area. It looks like spreading and improving and adding might get us somewhere.