Berg reports to board on health care
Sara Watson Arthurs/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 10/11/2006 04:21:01 AM PDT
EUREKA -- The good news this session in the Legislature started with an on-time budget, Assemblywoman Patty Berg told the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
Berg gave a report on recent legislation, including budget highlights and health care legislation.
She said she plans to bring back the California Compassionate Choices Act, which failed in committee as Assembly Bill 651 this year. The bill would allow terminally ill Californians to request a prescription for lethal medication. Berg called its failure by one vote “nothing short of a heartbreaker.”
She said her disaster relief bill, Assembly Bill 1798, provides property tax relief to residents whose homes were made uninhabitable by the New Year's Eve storm, as well as relief to the county for losses incurred by properties that fell off the tax rolls.
Berg also mentioned her master plan for aging, which looks at the imminent increase in elderly Californians as the Baby Boomers reach their 60s.
”We can either get ready, or we can get swamped,” Berg said.
She said she voted against Assembly Bill 2987, “the cable bill.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this bill, which will create a new statewide franchise for cable and video service providers, eliminating the current city-by-city local franchise. Berg said the bill didn't address the concerns of local governments.
Berg noted that Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1634, which reimburses counties for the 2005 special election, but vetoed Senate Bill 1225, which would have allowed counties to impose additional surcharges for abandoned cars.
In addition, Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 840, which would have created a single-payer health insurance system in California, Berg said.
”Believe me, this issue is not going to go away,” Berg said.
The supervisors also heard a report from Allan Katz, executive director of the Community Health Alliance of Humboldt-Del Norte, and Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ann Lindsay on health care in the community.
Katz said the endeavor grew out of the financial crisis St. Joseph Hospital announced in February.
But he said creating a strong health care system must involve everyone from across that system. A strong physician community is necessarily for strong hospitals, and vice versa, he said. Meanwhile, if employers are finding it harder to provide health insurance for employees, that creates additional stress on everyone, he said.
”You can't fix one part of the system and ignore the rest,” he said.
A community forum on local health care is scheduled for Oct. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Humboldt Area Foundation, Lindsay said.
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