PROPOSITION 45 HEATS UP

Enter now Paul Y. Song, MD, into the Proposition 45 debate. Actually, he's been there all along, has already appeared in my edits, testified at the all day hearing on 45 before it was known as Proposition 45,  and is said by some to be a prospective candidate for insurance commissioner.

In his editorial entitled "Why Are CA Doctors Breaking Their Hippocratic Oath on Prop. 45," Song asserts that the doctors and nurses opposed to 45 are protecting the insurance industry. He says "it is unconscionable." His main point seems to be that there is no conflict with the "independent commission" whereas "Covered California is actually run by purely political appointees." THAT is no news to us -- we don't know of any commission where prospective appointees are required to pass achievement tests and demonstrate that they know anything other than how to make political contributions. Song points out that some of the Covered California persons "have a long cozy history with the private insurance industry." Song points out with some relish that "it is the private health insurance industry and their administrators, many of whom have never cared for a patient, who are denying care, while telling doctors what treatment and drugs they can provide."

Song says that Prop. 45 "would simply apply the same regulatory framework to health insurance which has proven so successful regulating auto, home, and medical malpractice insurance in California." He likens Prop. 45 to Prop. 103 vis-a-vis auto insurance rates.

The juicier parts of Song's editorial include his telling certain persons and groups to "stop spreading ... lies." Take a look at it, and Young's editorial, and Bussey's. In many ways Prop. 45 is more substantial as important legislation than Prop. 46.

Our point is that while Prop. 45 if it passes will have the bite of law, its eventual teeth will be in the rules and regulations that follow. The proponents will need to make sure that the rules and regs are composed by forces that want it to succeed. Are they ready and prepared for the job?

References

You can follow Paul Y. Song on Twitter at www.twitter.com/paulysong; Bussey's editorial is referenced in our previous post & appears in UAPD Pulse; Young's editorial is referenced in our two previous posts and on the website for the California Neurology Society